JOHANNESBURG, Dec 1 (Reuters) - South Africa's commodity-linked rand edged up on Monday, helped by higher gold prices despite a disappointing local manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) survey and softer-than-expected vehicle sales figures for November.
At 1448 GMT, the rand traded at 17.0950 against the dollar , roughly up 0.1% on Friday's close.
The greenback last traded 0.3% weaker against a basket of currencies, while gold prices climbed to their highest level in six weeks on Monday, driven by expectations of a U.S. interest rate cut this month and changes in Federal Reserve leadership.
South Africa's manufacturing PMI posted its sharpest drop of the year in November, highlighting fragile factory activity as falling demand and output outweighed modest job gains and easing cost pressures.
Separately, data from national auto association NAAMSA showed a 12.5% year-on-year growth in new vehicles sold domestically, softer than the 15.7% increase projected by Nedbank economists and the 16% recorded in October.
Investor focus will pivot to third-quarter gross domestic product statistics on Tuesday, current account data for the same period on Thursday and foreign reserves numbers on Friday.
On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Top-40 index was last up 0.8%, lifted mainly by mining stocks.
South Africa's benchmark 2035 government bond was flat, with the yield at 8.505%.
Reporting by Sfundo Parakozov; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair and Ros Russell
Source: Reuters