South Africa's rand weakens

South Africa's rand weakened on Monday, as cautious investors awaited clues on monetary policy from the local central bank and some of the world's major central banks, as well as developments in US-China trade talks.

At 1535 GMT the rand was 0.41% weaker at 14.7850 per dollar. South Africa's central bank decides on lending rates for the last time in 2019 on Thursday, and the regulator is expected to keep the level unchanged at 6.5%.

On the bourse, the Top-40 index rose 0.82% while the broader all-share closed 0.74% higher. Gainers included technology investment company Prosus , rising 2.5% after the firm said it expected a rise of between 3% and 9% in "core headline earnings per share" from continuing operations for its fiscal first half year ended Sept. 30.

Dutch-based Prosus was spun out of South Africa's Naspers in a Sept. 11 initial public offering, and Naspers retains a 73.8% stake. Naspers shares closed 2.37% higher.

Bonds weakened, with the yield on the benchmark 2026 government issue inching up 2.5 basis point to 8.405%. Twenty-one of 28 economists polled by Reuters in the previous week said the repo rate would remain unchanged at the Nov. 21 meeting.