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Johannesburg - South Africa's rand strengthened to its highest level against the dollar in more than a week on Thursday, supported by improving precious metal prices.
The rand was at R9.1220/$ at 08:41, in line with its close in New York on Wednesday, after reaching a high of R9.0530 earlier in the session, which was its strongest since April 15.
Gold rose to its highest level in more than a week on Thursday as IMF data showed that Russia and Turkey raised their gold reserves in March, helping the spot price for bullion recover from a two-year low reached last week.
Stronger precious metal prices should boost commodity-linked currencies like the rand, analysts said.
"Our correlation analysis confirms that the rand has been tracking commodity prices more closely of late, which implies that if there is a further improvement in precious metal prices, the rand may strengthen a bit further," Absa Capital analysts wrote in a note.
The yield on the 2026 government bond rose 1.5 basis points to 6.825%, while that on the 2015 issue edged down 1.5 basis points to 5.25%.
