JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -The South African rand was up on Friday, as most emerging markets benefited from easing worries of an immediate U.S. involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict.
At 1436 GMT, the rand traded at 18.00 against the U.S.
dollar, up 0.2% from Thursday’s close.
The dollar edged up 0.1% against a basket of currencies, while crude oil prices dropped over 2% after President Donald Trump pushed back a decision on U.S.
military involvement in the hostilities.
Domestically, investors will look to producer inflation and leading indicator data due next week to gauge the health of Africa’s most industrialised economy.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s Top-40 index was little changed despite drops between 1% and 3% at most gold and platinum miners, and of more than 6% at petrochemical firm Sasol.
South Africa’s benchmark 2035 government bond was stronger. The yield fell 8 basis points to 10.06%.
(Reporting by Sfundo Parakozov and Alessandro Parodi; Editing by Rachna Uppal and Andrew Heavens)
