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Johannesburg - The rand recovered its footing against the dollar on Friday, shaking off the previous day's late bout of risk aversion triggered by the downing of a Malaysian plane in Ukraine.
Investors were still applauding the South African Reserve Bank's 25 basis point hiking of interest rates on Thursday to stem inflation pressures, a move seen boosting the rand's yield appeal.
The rand was up 0.93% to R10.6595 to the greenback by 17:21, the strongest performance in a basket of 25 emerging market currencies tracked by Thomson Reuters.
"The core markets regained some composure after the Malaysian jet disaster, allowing for pullback in dollar/rand," said Anisha Arora, emerging market analyst at 4Cast.
"The rate hike on Thursday did help to stem dollar/rand rallies."
The South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) raised the benchmark repo rate to 5.75% on Thursday, saying that while it was concerned about weak economic growth, its primary mandate was to rein in inflation which has breached a 3% to 6% target band.
The move also boosted government bonds, with yields inversely retreating 6 basis points to 8.07% for the 2026 benchmark and 5 basis points to 6.595% for paper due in 2015.
Investors were still applauding the South African Reserve Bank's 25 basis point hiking of interest rates on Thursday to stem inflation pressures, a move seen boosting the rand's yield appeal.
The rand was up 0.93% to R10.6595 to the greenback by 17:21, the strongest performance in a basket of 25 emerging market currencies tracked by Thomson Reuters.
"The core markets regained some composure after the Malaysian jet disaster, allowing for pullback in dollar/rand," said Anisha Arora, emerging market analyst at 4Cast.
"The rate hike on Thursday did help to stem dollar/rand rallies."
The South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) raised the benchmark repo rate to 5.75% on Thursday, saying that while it was concerned about weak economic growth, its primary mandate was to rein in inflation which has breached a 3% to 6% target band.
The move also boosted government bonds, with yields inversely retreating 6 basis points to 8.07% for the 2026 benchmark and 5 basis points to 6.595% for paper due in 2015.
