South Africa's rand, government bonds weaker

South Africa's rand gave up its gains against the dollar on Friday, as the greenback strengthened with jobless claims data easing concern over the state of the US economy. At 1448 GMT the rand was trading 0.32 percent softer at 11.9885 to the dollar compared with its closing level on Thursday. The rand hit an intraday low of 12.0580/dollar during the session, its weakest level since April 1. "It's all dollar driven to a larger extent," said Ion de Vleeschauwer, chief currency dealer at Bidvest Bank.
The local unit touched a month-high of 11.6950 on Monday, after weak US jobs numbers weighed on the dollar, but it has failed to hold on to gains. Government bonds weakened with the currency, and the yield for the 2026 benchmark up 7.5 basis points to 7.710 percent.