JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -The South African rand weakened on Wednesday as the U.S. dollar edged higher after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell did not rule out the possibility of another interest rate hike next month.
At 1537 GMT, the rand traded at 18.6850 against the U.S. dollar, around 0.88% weaker than its previous close.
The dollar last traded at 102.97 against a basket of global currencies, up 0.45%, fuelled by hawkish comments by Powell.
He was speaking at a European Central Bank conference in Portugal along with Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, ECB President Christine Lagarde and Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda.
Like other emerging market currencies, the risk-sensitive rand is susceptible to moves in global drivers such as the dollar, in the absence of local catalysts.
The rand strengthened at the start of the week as analysts speculated that the weekend’s aborted mutiny in Russia may mean President Vladimir Putin could skip a BRICS summit, where South Africa would in theory be obliged to arrest him on a war crime charge.
The BRICS group of emerging economies — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — is due to hold the summit in Johannesburg in August.
On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the blue-chip Top-40 index closed about 0.35% stronger.
South Africa’s benchmark 2030 government bond was stronger, with the yield down 4 basis points to 10.480%.
(Reporting by Tannur Anders and Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Anait Miridzhanian, Emma Rumney and Jonathan Oatis)
