South African rand firms to 3-month high

South Africa’s rand rose against the U.S dollar on Thursday, hitting its strongest in nearly three months.

The rand tracked fellow emerging market currencies, as the dollar was dented by hopes of U.S. interest rate cuts.

Stocks were down after the U.S national holiday on July 4, reduced volumes in local equities, and the stronger currency curbed desire for local commodities.

At 15 :10 GMT, the rand was 0.2% firmer at 14.0375 per dollar.

It hit a session high of 13.9575, its strongest level since April 17.

Fueling interest in riskier assets was a slew of soft U.S. data on Wednesday that added to bets that the Federal Reserve will cut rates as early as July.

Reuters