Johannesburg — South Africa’s rand was stronger on Tuesday with volatility likely to pick up on U.S. employment data later this week, analysts said.
At 1507 GMT, the rand traded at 18.4350 against the dollar, about 0.2% stronger than its previous close.
The dollar index was last trading down around 0.07% against a basket of currencies.
“We will probably only see more volatility later this week when the U.S. releases jobless claims data on Thursday,” said Casparus Treurnicht, portfolio manager at Gryphon Asset Management.
The data out of the U.S. could give hints on the future interest rate path of the world’s biggest economy and the rand often takes it cues from global factors like U.S. economic data in the absence of local data points.
On the stock market, both the Top-40 index and the broader all-share index closed up around 0.25%.
South Africa’s benchmark 2030 government bond was stronger, with the yield down 11 basis points to 10.450%.
Reporting by Bhargav Acharya and Tannur Anders; Editing by Christina Fincher and Ed Osmond – Reuters
