The rand firmed against the dollar in late afternoon trade on Friday following the release of better-than-expected US jobs data.
"It's a risk-on scenario after the US non-farm payrolls figures, but even before that we saw the rand supported by some very large offshore names and the US data just assisted the rand's progress," a local currency trader said.
"The euro briefly touched UD$1.32 after the data announcement and I think the single currency has performed admirably given the circumstances.
"For me though, the euro rand cross is the important thing to watch," he concluded.
At 15:35 local time, the rand was bid at R7.5547 to the dollar from its previous close of R7.6371. Before the data was released at 15:30, dollar rand was at 7.6142.
The rand was bid at R9.9326 to the euro from R10.0349 before, and at R11.9342 against sterling from R12.0692 previously.
The euro was trading at US$1.3164 from its previous close of US$1.3136.
Meanwhile, Dow Jones Newswires reported that the US labour market grew at its most robust pace since last spring in January, a sign that the economy's momentum had carried into the new year.
Non-farm payrolls rose by 243,000 last month, the Labor Department said, marking the biggest gain since last April. The jobless rate fell by two-tenths of a point to 8.3%, the lowest it's been since February 2009.
Both figures contradicted expectations of a slowdown in job growth to start the year. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a gain of 125,000 in payrolls and for the jobless rate to remain at 8.5%.
The report also indicated that job growth was stronger in previous months than initially reported, with the economy gaining 60,000 jobs beyond the government's preliminary figures for November and December.
The latest drop in the jobless rate - which has fallen from 9.1% since August - was due largely to genuine job growth rather than a reduction in the labour force, the report showed. The number of unemployed persons fell to 12.8 million, a three-year low.
The recent gains in the labour market reflected increasing confidence among private companies, which again fuelled the job growth. The private sector added 257,000 jobs, offsetting the 14,000 in job cuts by the public sector - namely, federal and local governments.
Still, unemployment remained historically high, and broad uncertainty, due mainly to the crisis in Europe, posed challenges to the US recovery in the months ahead.
In a positive sign for working Americans, average hourly earnings ticked up 4 cents, or 0.2%, to US$23.29. Still, wages were only up 1.9% year over year, not enough to keep up with inflation.
The gains were across a variety of sectors. The professional business services industry added 70,000 jobs, helped by a rise in temporary workers. Manufacturing employment continued to rise, adding 50,000 jobs.
The resurgent auto industry had been a strong source of job growth. Detroit's Chrysler Group LLC, for one, announced this week that it would add 1,800 jobs at an Illinois plant this year.
A broader measure of unemployment - which included job seekers as well as those stuck in part-time jobs - ticked down a tenth of a point to 15.1%.
Beyond the January data, the Labor Department made a revision to its annual benchmark of non-farm payrolls, adjusting the March 2011 benchmark upward by a seasonally adjusted 165,000.
