JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand and stocks retreated on Monday after a global commodity selloff and a firmer dollar put emerging assets under pressure, with the currency slumping to its weakest level in a month.
By 1550 the rand was trading down 2.09 percent at 15.1750 per dollar, a level last seen on April 8, as commodity-linked assets across the board suffered.
The benchmark JSE Top-40 index inched down 0.08 percent while the broader All-share index dipped 0.13 percent.
"Commodity currencies are all coming under pressure, with commodity prices under pressure and the dollar rising, so you would expect the rand to come under pressure as well," said the managing director and chief economist at ETM Analytics, George Glynos.
The rand was on the front foot in early trade, boosted by Moody's decision on Friday not to downgrade the country's debt, but quickly lost ground as global risk sentiment soured on growth concerns, while creaking local fundamentals also weighed.
South Africa's quarterly unemployment rate rose to its highest level on record, official data showed on Monday, rekindling worries over the government's ability to revive the economy and avoid downgrades to 'junk' status by two other ratings agencies.
Fitch and Standard & Poor's have the country just one notch above sub-investment grade and are due to make their decisions in June.
"Today's employment figures are very grim, but tell us little that we didn't already know about South Africa's troubled labour market. The political impacts may be more significant," said Africa analyst at Capital Economics John Ashbourne.
On the bourse, local commodity companies succumbed to a plunge in metal prices, with Impala Platinum falling 11.42 percent to 47.30 rand, Lonmin weakening 11.38 percent to 31.87 rand and AngloGold Ashanti dropping 10.34 percent to 218.79 rand.
Further losses on the bourse were capped by the financial, retail and property sectors, which benefited from Moody's decision to reaffirm South Africa's sovereign rating at investment-grade.
Trade was low, with more than 211 million shares changing hands, below last year's daily average of more than 296 million shares.
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