JOHANNESBURG, Sept 23 (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand softened against the dollar on Monday, retreating from a fresh 20-month high it hit earlier in the session.

At 0820 GMT, the rand traded at 17.455 against the greenback ZAR=D3, 0.27% weaker than its previous close.

The local unit earlier hit 17.37 per dollar, its strongest level since February 2023, as it continued to rally following strong gains last week after a super-sized interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve. That was followed by a rate cut by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) along expected lines.

The local currency benefited from the positive sentiment in the wake of the Fed and SARB rate cuts, said Andre Cilliers, currency strategist at TreasuryONE.

On the stock market, the Top-40 .JTOPI index was up 0.4%.

South Africa’s benchmark 2030 government bond ZAR2030= was flat, with the yield at 8.88%.

(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)