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(Adds latest figures)
JOHANNESBURG, May 13 (Reuters) - South Africa’s rand inched firmer on Wednesday as investors stayed optimistic about the chances for easing lockdown restrictions in some countries despite increases in new coronavirus cases.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) fell following global market trends which were weighed down on coronavirus resurgence fears and the announcement of a prolonged recession in the United States by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
Some of those early gains however were dampened by a speech by Powell pouring cold water on a quick recovery in the United States, cooling demand for emerging markets currencies as investors were given more reason to stay on the fence.
Investor concerns about new virus infections in China, Germany and South Korea have dimmed some of the hopes for a quick rebound in the global economy as countries look to restart activity and avoid prolonged recession.
At 1500 GMT the rand was 0.1% firmer at 18.4350 per dollar, having touched a session best 18.2600 just before the Fed speech before pulling back in low volume trade that has marked most of the week.
The dearth of economic data locally has capped expected gains by the rand, with the oversold levels and profit-taking on greenback not enough to push the unit past any meaningful resistance levels below the 18.00 mark.
The FTSE/JSE all share index went down 0.33% to close at 50,152 while the top 40 companies’ index closed down 0.22% to 46,416 points.
The market slide was led by JSE’s banking index which fell 2.81% at close of trading on Wednesday.
Bonds were weaker, reflecting the sour risk mood, with the yield on the benchmark 2030 government issue up 10 basis points to 9.42% (Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana and Promit Mukherjee; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
