* Local PMI at 0900 GMT
* Government bonds in narrow ranges
JOHANNESBURG, March 1 (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand
firmed against the dollar on Thursday on the back a strong
appetite for riskier assets and outperformed most of its peers
despite a pullback from the euro.
The rand often tracks the euro, its largest trading partner.
With the European Central Bank’s three-year liquidity
injection and the Greek bailout still playing on traders’ minds,
the rand was undeterred by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke who was cautious on the U.S. economy.
On local data, Kagiso Securities will release February’s
Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI)data at 0900 GMT. In January,
the PMI rebounded to 53.2 its highest level since June, from
49.4 in December.
At 0713 GMT, the currency was trading at 7.4951 to
the dollar, up 0.23 percent from Wednesday’s New York close of
7.515.
“The rand is performing very well, it’s outperforming all of
its peers, some month-end flows also contributed to the rand
strength,” said a Johannesburg-based trader.
“In the short term you will see some dollar buying, but
levels towards 7.52-53 you will see some people coming to sell
the rand again,” he added.
On fixed income, the yield on the 2015 note rose
3.5 basis points to 6.64 percent while that on the 2026 issue
was up 4.5 basis points to 8.275 percent.
(Reporting by Vuyani Ndaba, editing by Ed Stoddard)
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