South Africa’s rand strengthened modestly on Tuesday, extending a rally from the previous session sparked by growing hopes of a COVID-19 vaccine, while investors looked ahead to local mining and manufacturing data.
At 0630 GMT the rand was 0.17% firmer at 18.3450 per dollar, holding at a four-session best reached on Monday in a strong day for emerging currencies after encouraging results from the trial of a vaccine for COVID-19.
“Growing optimism around a COVID-19 vaccine that is showing promising results helped to restore some positive market sentiment, while the Federal Reserve’s unwavering support for the U.S. economy was also perceived as risk-on by the market,” said Bianca Botes of Peregrine Treasury Solutions.
“The rand continues to be driven by sentiment, which is essentially a balancing act as it switches between risk-on and risk-off as the pandemic unfolds,” Botes added in a note.
U.S. biotech firm Moderna has produced protective
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