JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's rand steadied against the dollar on Wednesday as importer and central bank buying of the greenback offset the impact of a strong gold price while local stocks tracked global equities lower.
The Johannesburg JSE's blue chip Top-40 was down 0.51 percent to 26,272.48 points and the broader All-share index gave up 0.35 percent to 29,265.17 points.
"The market has had a good run over the past few days, so you're probably seeing bit of profit taking sparked by concerns over these Greece problems," one Johannesburg-based trader said.
Concerns over Greece's debt problems saw investors pull out of equities internationally.
The rand was trading at 7.2650 against the dollar at 1537 GMT, not far off its close of 7.2444 in New York.
The rand touched 7.1950 earlier in the session -- its strongest level since August 2008 -- but central bank buying and importer demand pushed it to 7.29.
"There has been talk of central bank interest below 7.20 which is highly likely and of course importer demand is still around so that's why we bounced from those levels ," said Ion de Vleeschauwer, chief dealer at Bidvest Bank.
The central bank has repeatedly said it would increase its foreign currency holdings, which are mainly in dollars, when appropriate but would not target a rand level.
De Vleeschauwer also said the gold price supported the currency and will likely push it to its strong levels again over the next few days.
Gold, a major South African export, hit $1,147.95 an ounce on Wednesday, its highest level since mid January.
BOURSE PARES LOSSES
Stronger metal prices helped the resource-heavy local bourse to pare its deep losses earlier in the session.
"Platinum shares are also high on the back of a strong platinum price," another trader said.
World's No.1 platinum miner Anglo Platinum rallied 2.58 percent to 778.10 rand and rival Impala Platinum added 1.49 percent to 220 rand.
Elsewhere, retailers gained on hopes that recent interest rates cuts would boost consumer spending. Shoprite climbed 2.69 percent to 79.33 rand and Pick n Pay inched up 0.67 percent to 45.20 rand.
Vodacom was down 2.5 basis points to 7.935 percent and that on the long-dated 2036 note fell 2 basis points to 8.79 percent.
"As along as currency remains fairly stable to strong there will be demand for bonds because the stronger the rand the more likelihood there will be for another rate cut," de Vleeschauwer said.
The central bank surprisingly cut the repo rate by 50 basis points two weeks ago, as a strong rand currency had helped cool inflation. The rate reduction added to 500 basis points worth of cuts since December 2008 and took the repo rate to its lowest level in almost 3 decades.
Reuters Africa
