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Johannesburg - The rand continued its retreat against a strengthening dollar on Monday, as rekindled expectations of a near-term rate rise kept investors cautious.
The local currency fell in line with other emerging markets as investors opted for more caution following a strengthening dollar that benefited from the Fed's Stanley Fischer's comments that the bank was close to hitting its employment and inflation targets stoking expectations of a US rate hike.
Fischer's comments come ahead of a meeting with the world's central bankers scheduled on Friday where Fed chair Janet Yellen is expected to give guidance on interest rate policy.
At 16:40 GMT the rand fell 0.49% to 13.5940 per dollar, weakening for the third consecutive session.
"We could maybe see more rand weakness in the short term into this risky event on Friday but beyond this we still think there's scope for the currency to strengthen in the month ahead," said ETM Analytics economist Jana van Deventer.
Government bonds followed the downward trend as investors opted for more caution, with the yield for benchmark 2026 debt falling 5.5 basis points to at 8.530 percent.
On the bourse, the benchmark Top-40 index inched up 0.26% to 45 994 points while the broader All-share index was 0.11% higher at 52 828 points.
Media and e-commerce group Naspers, the largest listed company in Africa by market value, ended 2.51% higher to R2 320.59 lifting the bourse.
Tencent Holdings, of which Naspers owns more than a third, late last week posted a 47% jump in second-quarter profit, beating analysts' estimates.
Steel producer ArcelorMittal tumbled 2.59% after it agreed to pay a record R1.5bn ($110m) fine for colluding to fix steel prices.
Trade was below par with around 166 million shares changing hands, compared with last year's daily average of 296 million, according to preliminary bourse data.
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