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JOHANNESBURG - South Africa's stocks, government bonds and rand recovered some ground on Wednesday after the previous day's steep selloff triggered by the conflict in the Middle East.
* At 1232 GMT, the rand traded at 16.3975 against the dollar , up about 0.9% from its previous close
* The Johannesburg Stock Exchange's All-Share index was last up around 1.5%
* The rand closed down about 2.5% on Tuesday, and the All-Share index dropped 5.5% in a global flight to safety as Israeli and U.S. forces pounded targets across Iran, prompting Iranian retaliatory strikes around the Gulf
* Investec chief economist Annabel Bishop said one reason for the rebound was that Gulf countries were discussing the option of responding to Iran's attacks
* Bishop said major oil producer Saudi Arabia was raising output and exports to help stabilise oil markets
* "These factors have lifted financial market sentiment somewhat, and lessened the perceived need for safe havens," she told Reuters
* Another tailwind came from commodity prices, as key South African exports gold and platinum rose on global markets
* The benchmark 2035 South African government bond also rallied, with the yield down 9.5 basis points to 8.23%.



















