South Africa rand halts 5 straight losses, boost from dovish Fed

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's rand was in firmer territory against the dollar on Thursday after five prior straight losses, reaching its strongest in nearly a week as dovish comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve weighed on the greenback. The local unit climbed to as high as 10.4705, a level last reached on April 11 according to Thomson Reuters data, and was trading at 10.4750 by 1530 GMT, up 0.87 percent from Wednesday's close. Trading volumes were fairly thin, with most traders reluctant to take meaningful positions ahead of financial market closures in South Africa on Friday and Monday for the Easter holiday, dealers and analysts said. The rand tracked a generally firmer trend among emerging market assets, which carry more risks but offer investors higher yields, and benefited from comments overnight by Fed Chair Janet Yellen that low interest rates are needed to support the U.S. economy. "Dollar-rand is showing signs of topping out in the short term, with 10.5800 offering moderate resistance recently and more dovish Fed comments helping to spark some selling interest around these levels," Tradition Analytics said in a note. South African government bonds tracked the rand firmer, and yields inversely fell, helped by renewed foreign investor interest after a sell-off earlier in the year. The yield for the 2026 secondary market benchmark closed 10 basis points lower at 8.375 percent while the 2015 bond at the shorter end of the curve gave up 8 basis points to 6.715 percent. (Reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa; Editing by Ed Stoddard)