Rand Gives Away Some Of Its Weekly Gains Even As Eskom Cuts Load-Shedding

The Rand sits at the bottom of the EMEA scoreboard, reducing its weekly outperformance stemming from stabilisation on the political front. The ANC's NEC is holding a meeting, with the Phala Phala situation and the nation's energy crisis on the agenda ahead of the party's elective conference next week.

• Eskom announced that it will downscale its load-shedding to Stage 5 until Saturday morning, immediately reducing the amount of power taken off the grid by 2,000MW. The news may have provided some brief reprieve to the ZAR, albeit its short-lived uptick was somewhat delayed relative to headlines.
• USD/ZAR trades at ZAR17.3510, up ~1,850 pips on the day and within touching distance from session highs. The rate's rebound comes after it printed a Doji candlestick yesterday. Further gains past Dec 1 high of ZAR17.9596 would support the bullish case, while bears look for a dip through Nov 30 low of ZAR16.8980.
• Local-currency bond yield curve has bear steepened, with 10-year yields moving away from weekly lows today to last sit at 10.99%.
• The commodity complex extends gains, possibly shielding the ZAR from deeper losses. The BBG precious metals subindex has added 0.44% so far, lagging the 1.07% advance in the BBG Commodity Index.