Johannesburg - The rand turned softer against the dollar on Monday after South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) data showed only a slight improvement in net foreign exchange reserves during August.
The blue-chip Top 40 futures index was up 0.7%, suggesting the local bourse would open at least 316 points higher.
Government bonds came under early pressure at the start of trade, with the yield for paper due in 2026 climbing 7 basis points to 8.635%.
By 08:52 the rand was down 0.5% at R13.9450/$ compared with its Friday close.
The local unit turned south after Sarb data showed net gold and foreign exchange reserves ticked up only a bit to $41.244bn in August from $41.007bn in July.
The Reserve Bank has long admitted it does not have enough reserves to try and defend the rand, which has shed more than 12% this year against the dollar as investors expecting US interest rates to rise have dumped risky emerging markets.
On Saturday, governor Lesetja Kganyago said the sharp fall in the currency "is not necessarily a bad thing" and that it need not be a worry, to the extent that it was part of a global foreign exchange rebalancing.
The rand was likely to remain vulnerable to global news headlines on Monday, despite the Labour Day public holiday in the United States which would ordinarily take some pressure off markets, Standard Bank trader Warrick Butler said.
"Looking at the charts, things don’t look ready to turn around just yet. The weekly close above 13.50 last week means that more pain in likely in the rand before things get better," Butler said.
Rand - Dollar
18.92
-0.1%
Rand - Pound
23.89
-0.0%
Rand - Euro
20.44
+0.1%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.35
+0.0%
Rand - Yen
0.13
-0.1%
Platinum
909.30
+1.4%
Palladium
1,015.00
+1.3%
Gold
2,221.01
+1.2%
Silver
24.85
+0.8%
Brent Crude
86.09
-0.2%
Top 40
68,346
+1.0%
All Share
74,536
+0.9%
Resource 10
57,251
+2.9%
Industrial 25
103,936
+0.6%
Financial 15
16,502
-0.1%
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