{"id":34019,"date":"2026-05-08T11:06:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T09:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=34019"},"modified":"2026-05-08T11:06:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T09:06:33","slug":"rand-gains-on-weaker-dollar-optimism-over-potential-us-iran-deal","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-gains-on-weaker-dollar-optimism-over-potential-us-iran-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand gains on weaker Dollar, optimism over potential US, Iran deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The South African (SA) Rand gained against a weaker Dollar in early trade \u200bon Friday, as investors remained optimistic about \u200ca potential United States (US), Iran peace deal despite renewed hostilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The US and Iran exchanged fire on Thursday in the \u200bmost serious test yet of their \u200bmonth-long ceasefire, but Iran said the situation returned \u2060to normal while the US said it \u200bdid not want to escalate.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The \u200bRand traded at 16.4425 against the Dollar, about 0.4% stronger than its previous close.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The greenback last traded weaker \u200bagainst a basket of currencies.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Traders awaited the \u200bmonthly US employment report due later in the day \u200cto \u2060assess future monetary policy path.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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SA’s net foreign reserves rose to $73.76 billion at the end of April from $73.19 billion in March, Central bank data \u200bshowed on \u200bFriday.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Nedbank economists \u2060had projected the country’s international liquidity position to rise by a \u200bmodest $73.57 billion, supported by lower receipts \u200bof \u2060foreign deposits.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Top 40 index was last down 1.5%.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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SA’s benchmark 2035 \u2060government \u200bbond was also weaker in \u200bearly deals, as the yield rose 7.5 basis points to \u200b8.65%.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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–Reuters–<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15730,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-34019","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Rand gained against a weaker Dollar in early trade \u200bon Friday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34020,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34019\/revisions\/34020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}