Rand recovers slightly on technical factors, stocks falter

The South African rand reversed earlier losses on Thursday with technical factors offering support while stocks fell, dragged down by resource counters and heavyweight Naspers.

The rand had a volatile session, falling as much as 1% after the release of data showing a sharp jump in South Africa’s current account deficit in the first quarter of 2018.

But the currency has been in oversold territory according to momentum indicators tracked by charters, and this offered the currency technical support.

It had gained over 0.5% at one point in late afternoon trade and was little changed on the day at 15:30 GMT, fetching 13.6575/dlr.

“The overall sentiment is that the rand was largely oversold,” said AfriFocus Securities Portfolio Manager Cheslyn Francis.

Bonds firmed in line with the rand, with the yield on the benchmark bond due in 2026 down 10.5 basis points to 8.92%.

In stocks, the JSE Top-40 index slipped 0.74% to 50,023 points, while the broader All-share index also fell 0.74% to 56,234 points.

Falling oil prices weighed on petro-chemicals group Sasol , which shed 0.65%, while Gold Fields lost almost 1.4% as gold hit six-month lows in the face of the strong dollar.