{"id":43377,"date":"2026-08-21T12:02:55","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T10:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=43377"},"modified":"2026-08-21T12:02:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T10:02:55","slug":"rand-strengthens-against-weaker-dollar-supported-by-gold-gains","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rand-strengthens-against-weaker-dollar-supported-by-gold-gains\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand strengthens against weaker Dollar, supported by gold gains"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The South African (SA) Rand strengthened on Friday as gold prices edged higher and remained on course \u200bfor a third weekly gain, while a weaker \u200cUnited States (US) Dollar and the US Treasury&#8217;s bond buyback initiative boosted sentiment toward risk-sensitive currencies and precious metals.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Rand \u200btraded at 16.0550 against the Dollar, about 0.4% \u200bup from its previous close.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>US Treasury Secretary Scott \u2060Bessent said he may further increase the governments repurchases of \u200bTreasuries.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>That came after the Treasury said it would double the \u200bsize of buybacks on longer-dated securities over the next quarter.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The dollar headed for a weekly loss, making greenback-priced bullion more affordable \u200bfor buyers overseas.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Gold, SA&#8217;s key export, edged higher \u200bon Friday and was on track for a third consecutive weekly gain, \u200csupported \u2060by a weaker Dollar and the US Treasury&#8217;s bond-buyback move.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Like other risk-sensitive currencies, the Rand often takes cues from global developments when there is little domestic economic \u200bdata on the \u200bcalendar.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The rand \u2060is trading firmer at R16.06 on the back of the softer dollar, and generally \u200bfirmer EM and commodity-driven currencies,&#8221; said Andre Cilliers, \u200bcurrency \u2060strategist at TreasuryONE, referring to emerging markets.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Top-40 index was last up 2% in \u2060early \u200btrade.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s benchmark 2035 government bond \u200bwas also firmer in early deals, as the yield fell 2.5 basis \u200bpoints to 8.54%.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14374,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-43377","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"SA Rand strengthened on Friday as gold prices edged higher a","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43377","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\/43377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43378,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43377\/revisions\/43378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=43377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}