Rand Rallies With Bonds as South Africa Dodges Moody’s Downgrade

  • Moody’s lowered outlook to negative, but didn’t cut it to junk
  • Rand rises the most in more than three weeks versus the dollar
A 100 South African Rand banknote stands in this arranged photograph in London, U.K.Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
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South Africa’s rand climbed and government bonds gained the most in 20 months after the country clung to its last investment-grade credit rating.

The currency gained 1.7% to 14.7771 per dollar by 4:43 p.m. in Johannesburg, the most on a closing basis in more than three weeks, and paring its loss since the end of June to 4.7%. The yield on rand-denominated government bonds fell the most since February 2018 and stocks advanced.