JOHANNESBURG: South African rand firmed on Wednesday, as the dollar weakened on global markets with investors awaiting U.S. consumer price data due tomorrow.

At 1535 GMT, the risk-sensitive rand traded at 16.9800 against the dollar, 0.19% stronger than its previous close.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major rivals, was last down about 0.1% at 103.14.

“For now, the rand is struggling to find the catalyst to drive the USD-ZAR through strong technical support,” ETM Analytics said in a research note.

Markets will look towards U.S. inflation data due on Thursday for cues on the likely path of rates this year after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell avoided speaking about rate hikes at a conference on Tuesday.

Locally, investors will again be wary of the impact on businesses from the latest rotational power cuts by state power utility Eskom, which on Wednesday repeated its worst outages on record until further notice.

Shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange ended higher, mirroring similar moves in global equities. Overall, the Top-40 index ended 0.77% higher while the broader all-share index rose 0.67%.

The government’s benchmark 2030 bond was weaker, with the yield up 4.5 basis points at 9.895%.