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Johannesburg - The rand touched its strongest level in more than a week against the dollar on Thursday, joining a global rally triggered by comments from the US Federal Reserve which dented expectations it could soon pull back on its asset purchases.
However manufacturing output data due at 13:00 could weaken the rand if it shows a sharp slowdown from the previous month, reinforcing the picture of an economy struggling to grow.
Analysts polled by Reuters expect growth in factory production to have braked to 2.9% year-on-year in May from 7% in April.
The rand reached a session high of R9.8605 to the greenback, a level last seen on July 1, and was at R9.91 by 08:45 after closing at R9.9380 on Wednesday.
The debt market followed suit, with the yield for the government bond due in 2026 shedding 9.5 basis points to 7.945%. The return on the 2015 paper was down 9 basis points at 5.99%.
The dollar stumbled against major currencies after dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke prompted markets to reassess expectations the US central bank would start to reduce stimulus as early as September.
"This is all good news for the local markets, with equities and bonds likely to perform well today," Rand Merchant Bank analyst John Cairns predicted.
"The rand's already reflected the initial adjustment, although the upside adjustment in euro/rand and sterling/rand show that the move ... has mostly just been dollar weakness."
However manufacturing output data due at 13:00 could weaken the rand if it shows a sharp slowdown from the previous month, reinforcing the picture of an economy struggling to grow.
Analysts polled by Reuters expect growth in factory production to have braked to 2.9% year-on-year in May from 7% in April.
The rand reached a session high of R9.8605 to the greenback, a level last seen on July 1, and was at R9.91 by 08:45 after closing at R9.9380 on Wednesday.
The debt market followed suit, with the yield for the government bond due in 2026 shedding 9.5 basis points to 7.945%. The return on the 2015 paper was down 9 basis points at 5.99%.
The dollar stumbled against major currencies after dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke prompted markets to reassess expectations the US central bank would start to reduce stimulus as early as September.
"This is all good news for the local markets, with equities and bonds likely to perform well today," Rand Merchant Bank analyst John Cairns predicted.
"The rand's already reflected the initial adjustment, although the upside adjustment in euro/rand and sterling/rand show that the move ... has mostly just been dollar weakness."
