JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South Africa’s rand firmed and stocks rose on Monday, with the dollar slightly weaker on bets that U.S. interest rates have peaked.
At 1541 GMT the rand traded at 18.2925 against the dollar, up about 0.7% from its closing level on Friday.
The dollar was down about 0.1% against a basket of major currencies.
Analysts said they expected the rand would mainly respond to global drivers this week, with the domestic data calendar relatively light.
The most likely local catalysts are expected on Thursday, with the release of March mining and manufacturing production numbers.
Data on Monday showed South Africa’s net foreign reserves rose to $55.370 billion at the end of April, from $55.229 billion in March, though there was little impact on the rand.
On the stock market, the blue-chip index of top 40 companies ended up 0.62% while the broader all-share index closed 0.56% higher.
South Africa’s benchmark 2030 government bond was slightly weaker, with the yield up 3 basis points at 10.160%.
(Reporting by Alexander Winning and Nellie PeytonEditing by David Goodman and Barbara Lewis)
