Johannesburg - South Africa's rand back-tracked slightly on Friday from an almost three-month high against the dollar but continued to look solid as other emerging market currencies firmed amid renewed investor appetite for riskier assets.
At 08:10 SA time, the rand was 0.24 percent softer to the dollar at 10.5980, from its 10.5800 close in New York on Thursday.
The currency touched a session high of 10.5615 on Thursday, its strongest since January 2, after Reserve Bank Governor Gill Marcus made clear the monetary policy committee had embarked on a rate-tightening cycle.
“The driver remains the surge of confidence towards emerging markets,” Rand Merchant Bank said, noting that foreigners had picked up 5.5 billion rand of local equities and bonds so far this week.
Despite the in-flows, government bonds retreated slightly, with yields rising 8 basis points to 8.425 percent on the benchmark 2026 bond and 6.880 percent on the 2015 issue. - Reuters