South Africa's rand rallied more than one percent on Friday to a new one month high with momentum reignited by a subdued jobs report from the United States that dragged down the dollar. At 1515 GMT the rand was 1.06% firmer at 14.7275 per dollar, its best since Aug. 2, from an overnight close of 14.8850.
The greenback slipped to near a one-week low as a mixed report on the US jobs market in August reinforced the view of a slowing expansion and the possibility of more interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. Friday's session brought the rand's gains to more than 3.5% for the week, most of which came after Tuesday's much better-than-expected second quarter gross domestic product figures.
In equities, the broader All-Share index rose 0.2% to 55,591 points, while the blue chips Top-40 index also gained 0.2% to49,673 points. In the three months to June, Africa's most industrialised economy expanded by 3.1%, after a 3.1% contraction in the first quarter. Economists polled by Reuters had predicted an expansion of 2.4% for the quarter.
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