JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South Africa’s rand and stocks tumbled on Thursday as the Federal Reserve’s June meeting minutes revealed a hawkish policy stance, prompting investors to move away from riskier assets.
At 1500 GMT, the rand traded at 19.1000 against the dollar, almost 1.7% weaker than its previous close and its weakest since early June.
The dollar last traded at 103.300 against a basket of global currencies, around 0.4% weaker, reversing earlier gains.
Minutes of the Fed’s June meeting, released on Wednesday, showed that a vast majority of policymakers expected further monetary policy tightening, even as they agreed to hold interest rates steady last month.
Global stocks sunk on Thursday, with the MSCI All-World index last trading down around 0.4%.
“Local stocks have had a tough day today, taking their lead from global equity markets and some risk off sentiment creeping into what are overbought conditions,” said Shaun Murison, senior market analyst at IG.
On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, both the blue-chip and the broader all-share indices closed over 2% weaker.
South Africa’s benchmark 2030 government bond was weaker, with the yield up 18.5 basis points at 10.700%.
(Reporting by Tannur Anders and Anait Miridzhanian;Editing by Promit Mukherjee, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Vinay Dwivedi)
