The rand was reasonably strong on Tuesday morning, catching the spoils of so-called risk-on trade.Foreigners were net buyers of local bonds the value of R1.42bn on Monday, boosting the value of the rand, which plays a key role in the outlook for inflation.With the dust appearing to settle on global markets, investors are gradually coming back into emerging markets, which tend to suffer collateral damage as a collective during bouts of risk-off trade.Recently, the US-China trade row was the catalyst that undermined global sentiment, contributing to bond and equity outflows from emerging markets and pushing the rand to nearly R14/$ for the first since November before coming back.The rand’s recovery also benefited from a shaky dollar, after a mixed US nonfarm payrolls report led some to believe that US Federal Reserve would stick to its gradualist approach in raising interest rates.A relatively stronger rand would also help reduce the probability of another fuel hike. A weaker rand and...
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