RTRS:S.Africa's rand falls against dollar, bonds follow
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's rand traded weaker against the dollar on Friday and bonds followed suit as global risk appetite remained hostage to unease over the health of some euro zone economies.
Overnight comments from South Africa's deputy central bank governor Daniel Mminele that hesitant domestic growth is expected to contain inflation reaffirmed the market view that local interest rates will remain unchanged this year.
By 0654 GMT the rand was trading at 8.09 to the dollar, 0.56 percent weaker than Thursday's close of 8.0450.
News from JP Morgan that it suffered a $2 billion trading loss from a failed hedging strategy also spooked investors.
"The price action tells me that people have got over-invested in risk and generally the rand, which is a high beta product, is suffering for that because risk sold off quite heavily after the JPMorgan comments," said Mark Southworth, a trader from Citibank.
In the fixed income market, yields opened higher as bonds were not spared from the risk sell-off.
The yields for the 2015 bond and the longer-dated 2026 note each rose by five basis points to 6.51 percent and 8.325 percent respectively.
"Foreigners were net sellers yesterday but ... in the afternoon there was some buying. However with the nervousness bonds are opening a little bit weaker today and yields look to go a little bit higher," Southworth said.