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Rand recovers but still vulnerable

Johannesburg - The rand recovered against the dollar in early trade on Tuesday, but gains were capped as a slump in China's imports raised concerns of a more severe slowdown in the world's second-largest economy that have been rattling global markets.

Stocks have opened sharply higher with the Top40 index gaining 1.61% to 44 086 points. Gains are however expected to be restricted after China's August imports fell less than expected, reflecting both lower global commodity prices and persistently sluggish demand from the largest importer of commodities.

At 10:25 the rand recovered to trade R13.88/$ after tumbling to an all-time low of 14.0175 on Tuesday.

"We are surprised that the market has not focused on the much-worse-than-expected 13.8% year-on-year decline in imports," John Cairns, a currency strategist at Rand Merchant Bank, said in a note.

Lower Chinese imports are negative as low demand comes at a time when the domestic economy is already hit with low commodity prices and sluggish economic growth.

"Weak data from China can still affect market sentiment, even if the reliability of some data has been questioned," said Peter Worthington of Barclays Africa in a note.

Yields on government bonds were mostly high, but the benchmark 2026 issue was down 1.5 basis points at 8.600%.

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Rand - Dollar
18.88
+0.3%
Rand - Pound
23.85
+0.2%
Rand - Euro
20.38
+0.2%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.32
+0.1%
Rand - Yen
0.12
+0.2%
Platinum
908.05
0.0%
Palladium
1,014.94
0.0%
Gold
2,232.75
-0.0%
Silver
24.95
-0.1%
Brent Crude
87.00
+1.8%
Top 40
68,346
0.0%
All Share
74,536
0.0%
Resource 10
57,251
0.0%
Industrial 25
103,936
0.0%
Financial 15
16,502
0.0%
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