The rand was steady against the dollar in early morning trade on Friday as it tracked a euro that was treading water after fears around a Greek default eased somewhat.
"The euro has caught everyone by surprise as it looked as though it was about to collapse yesterday," a local currency trader said.
"Eurozone finance ministers meet on Monday and that's the big day really," he added.
The trader said dollar rand was likely to remain in a range of 7.72 to 7.82 for the day.
At 08:41 local time, the rand was bid at R7.7640 to the dollar from its previous close of R7.7653. It was bid at R10.1870 to the euro from R10.1947 before, and at R12.2683 against sterling from R12.2654 previously.
The euro was bid at US$1.3116 from its previous close of US$1.3127.
Barclays Capital said in a note on Friday morning that the rand had weakened sharply on Thursday morning, but rand bears had ran out of momentum at R7.88 by the afternoon.
"The local unit is maintaining a firmer bias this morning. Hopes that Greece might get another tranche of financial assistance (US$170bn) from the EU and the IMF as early as Monday, together with yesterday's better-than-expected US employment and housing data provided a boost for risky assets," Barclays Capital added.
Although the rand is benefiting from the improved global sentiment, the prevailing strike activity at the country's largest platinum mine (Impala Platinum's Rustenburg operations) could temper a rand recovery, given that platinum was SA's single biggest exported good.
