JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand weakened on Wednesday as sentiment toward risky assets remained subdued with rate hikes in the United States beckoning, while mining shares led stocks higher.
By 1520 GMT, the rand had slipped 0.31 percent to 16.2700 per dollar, failing to hold on to gains earlier in the session after a rise in oil prices helped soothe the appetite for emerging assets.
Bonds were also weaker, with the benchmark paper due in 2026 adding 1.5 basis points to 9.295 percent.
"We believe the focus of the next few sessions will be predominantly on the US labour market data," analysts at London-based research firm 4Cast said.
Growth in US employment would strengthen the case for the Federal Reserve to up the tempo on its heightening cycle, which traditionally has triggered an outflow of investments from emerging markets.
4Cast's analysts said they saw the rand remaining above the 16.22 level after Friday's data.
Local data also put pressure the currency, with a Purchasing Managers' Index showing private sector activity remained in decline.
On the bourse, stocks ended higher, outperforming major overseas equity markets, as a rebound in commodity prices such as copper and oil boosted mining shares.
Heavyweight Anglo American was the biggest gainer among the blue-chips, rising 9.16 percent to 63.28 rand. Rival BHP Billiton added 3.42 percent to 150.49 rand.
Copper rose on Wednesday after inventories declined, oil prices recovered and traders continued to reverse bets on falling prices ahead of the Lunar New Year break.
The blue-chip JSE Top-40 index added 1.11 percent to 43,447 and the broader All-share index was up 1.05 percent to 48,535. Boosted by a nearly 9 percent growth in quarterly sales, mobile phone group Vodacom gained 3.08 percent to 148.49 rand.
On the downside, Barloworld skidded 6 percent to 66.74 rand after southern Africa's biggest dealer of Caterpillar mining trucks gave a downbeat quarterly trading update.
Trading volumes on the exchange were slow with more than 250 million shares changing hands, slightly below last year's daily average of 296 million shares.
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