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Johannesburg - The rand stayed firmer against the dollar in
early Friday trade, supported by a relief rally after the Greek government
shelved plans to hold a referendum on eurozone membership.
The rand was nearing last week's closing level of R7.73,
with dealers looking to take advantage of the positive sentiment toward riskier
assets.
Market analysts see the rand testing firmer levels at around
R7.70 this session, on hopes that US non-farm payrolls beat market estimates
and a Greek political vote that should see the current government pass a
confidence vote.
The rand was 0.25% firmer against the dollar at the
session's high so far of R7.84 at 06:31 GMT.
The heavily traded rand has seen increased volatility this
week, starting the week at R7.73 levels and falling to R8.20 so far as the
eurozone crisis held global markets hostage to any developments in that region.
Government bonds have taken direction from the European
situation and also tracked the currency this week, while bracing for a domestic
interest rate decision next week that will be the market's main driver.
“Its all about Europe, the surprise cut from the ECB caused the rally yesterday, the market has moved lower on that,” said Marten Banninga of World Wide Capital Securities adding that the Greek confidence decision held some risk but yields were more likely to stay low during the session on the sentiment and firmer rand.
Yields were down seven basis points to 6.455% on the 2015 bond and 7.5 basis points to 8.285% on the 2026 issue.
