South Africa's rand rebounded slightly in late trade on Monday after a steep fall last week, joining some other emerging market currencies in paring some losses even as Iran and the United States traded threats.

At 1557 GMT, the rand was trading at 14.2290 per dollar, 0.5% stronger than its New York close on Friday.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange's Top-40 index closed down 1.04% at 50,999 points, while the broader All-Share index fell by the same amount to 57,195 points.

Gold stocks were however among only a handful of firms on the blue-chip index to rise, as a retreat to safe-haven assets pushed the gold price to its highest since 2013. Producers Sasol and Goldfields topped the index, up 2% and 0.7% respectively, with Anglo American Platinum rising 0.3%.

In fixed income, the yield on the benchmark government bond due in 2026 was down 1 basis point at 8.25%.

Cristian Maggio, head of emerging markets strategy at TD Securities, said there was no obvious reason for the rand or other emerging market currencies, such as the Czech crown or Mexican peso, to strengthen.

"I think today is just a technical rebound," Maggio said. "There's nothing really new that has happened and perhaps the market is taking a chance to take a contrarian view, in the short term at least."