JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -The South African rand strengthened on Friday, helped by optimism about an easing of U.S.-China trade tensions and better-than-expected U.S. jobs data that boosted global risk appetite.
The gains came despite another weak local purchasing managers’ index (PMI) survey that pointed to depressed manufacturing conditions in Africa’s biggest economy.
At 1440 GMT the rand traded at 18.3525 against the dollar, up roughly 1% on Thursday’s closing level.
The rand has been highly volatile in the past month, moving mainly on shifts in offshore investor sentiment linked to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and local political wrangling over the budget.
In Friday’s manufacturing sector PMI, respondents cited global trade tensions and domestic political uncertainty as the headline reading remained in contractionary territory for the sixth straight month.
April vehicle sales were a mixed bag, with a 11.9% year-on-year rise in local sales and a 6.6% fall in exports.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s All-share index last traded 1% higher. The benchmark 2030 government bond was little changed.
(Reporting by Sfundo Parakozov;Editing by Alexander Winning and Susan Fenton)
