JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -The South African rand slipped on Wednesday, as the dollar rose with investors awaiting results from U.S. midterm elections.
At 1528 GMT, the rand traded at 17.79 against the dollar, about 0.4% weaker than its previous close.
The dollar index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of other currencies, was up more than 0.5%.
The U.S. midterm vote – where Republicans made modest gains but Democrats did better than expected – was taking centre stage on global markets.
On Thursday, South Africa-focused investors’ attention will turn to domestic economic data, with September mining and manufacturing numbers due to be published.
Some analysts are becoming more downbeat about South Africa’s economic growth prospects.
BNP Paribas said in a research note that it was revising down its 2023 growth estimate by 0.6 percentage points to 0.2%, adding that high, sticky inflation was likely to keep the South African central bank hawkish into next year.
On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the All-share index closed up about 0.9%. The government’s benchmark 2030 bond firmed slightly, with the yield falling 3 basis points to 10.500%.
(Reporting by Anait Miridzhanian and Alexander Winning; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
