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Johannesburg - The rand firmed against the dollar on Thursday, taking direction from a stronger euro and shrugging off the first rolling blackouts to hit the economy in six years.
The single currency, buoyed by the European Central Bank's (ECB) decision to keep interest rates on hold, traded at its highest level against the dollar since late December.
South Africa's currency firmed to its highest since January 7, trading at a session best of R10.5930/$ at 15:45 GMT . The unit closed at R10.6600/$ in New York on Wednesday.
Dealers said the rand traded on the stronger moves from euro/dollar throughout the day, extending those gains after the ECB reassured markets that the recovery by South Africa's main trading partner appeared to be on track.
Rand traders largely ignored state power utility Eskom's imposition of rolling blackouts, the first time since a power crisis in 2008, with analysts saying investors had already priced in some outages, or 'load-shedding' as it is known.
"The market appears to just view the load-shedding as 'normal' and indicative of where South Africa is in macroeconomic terms," Nomura analyst Peter Attard Montalto said in a note.
Government bonds rallied with the rand, taking yields down to five-week lows on the benchmarks.
The yield on the 2026 issue dropped 11 basis points to 8.455%, while the shorter-dated 2015 note gave up 13.5 basis points to 6.945%.
The single currency, buoyed by the European Central Bank's (ECB) decision to keep interest rates on hold, traded at its highest level against the dollar since late December.
South Africa's currency firmed to its highest since January 7, trading at a session best of R10.5930/$ at 15:45 GMT . The unit closed at R10.6600/$ in New York on Wednesday.
Dealers said the rand traded on the stronger moves from euro/dollar throughout the day, extending those gains after the ECB reassured markets that the recovery by South Africa's main trading partner appeared to be on track.
Rand traders largely ignored state power utility Eskom's imposition of rolling blackouts, the first time since a power crisis in 2008, with analysts saying investors had already priced in some outages, or 'load-shedding' as it is known.
"The market appears to just view the load-shedding as 'normal' and indicative of where South Africa is in macroeconomic terms," Nomura analyst Peter Attard Montalto said in a note.
Government bonds rallied with the rand, taking yields down to five-week lows on the benchmarks.
The yield on the 2026 issue dropped 11 basis points to 8.455%, while the shorter-dated 2015 note gave up 13.5 basis points to 6.945%.
