JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand strengthened against the dollar early on Wednesday, helped by investors' appetite for riskier assets on expectations that the US Federal Reserve will delay hiking interest rates.
At 0615 GMT the rand was trading 0.4 percent stronger at 11.8375 to the dollar compared with its closing level on Tuesday.
"Rand gains have been helped by an ongoing risk-on tone in global markets following the payrolls figure," Rand Merchant Bank currency trader John Cairns said in a market note.
"It seems that large inflows and a rand positive bias might remain as long as expectations remain that the Fed will hike only late in the year." Friday's weaker-than-expected US jobs data had fuelled expectations that the Fed will postpone its first interest rate increase in nearly a decade, weakening the dollar.
In fixed income, the yield for the 2026 benchmark was flat at 7.675 percent.
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