JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -The South African rand and Johannesburg-listed shares extended gains on Friday, as investors piled into riskier assets on hopes for less aggressive interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve and as China eased some COVID-19 curbs.
Data on Thursday showed U.S.
consumer prices rose less than expected in October, pushing the annual increase below 8% for the first time in eight months in one of the strongest signs yet that inflation was slowing.
Adding to optimism across emerging markets, China eased some of its COVID rules.
At 1618 GMT the rand was up about 0.4% against the dollar at 17.2900, after earlier hitting a two-month high.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s All-share index closed up 3.2% higher on Friday. The yield on the South African government’s 2030 bond fell by 9 basis points to 10.190%, reflecting a stronger price.
(Reporting by Anait Miridzhanian and Alexander Winning; Editing by Alexander Smith)
