Johannesburg - The rand firmed against the dollar in afternoon trade on Friday ahead of Monday's expected announcement of a Greek deal.
"All eyes will be on Greece on Monday, so this afternoon saw some short-covering ahead of the weekend," a local dealer said.
At 18:00 local time, the rand was bid at R7.7114 to the dollar from its previous close of R7.7653. It was bid at R10.1533 to the euro from R10.1947 before, and at R12.1993 against sterling from R12.2654 previously.
The euro was bid at $1.3163 from its previous close of $1.3127.
Dow Jones Newswires reported that investors in Europe had welcomed signs that Greece was edging closer to securing a second bailout.
At a briefing on Thursday, Greek government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis said Greece expected eurozone finance ministers to approve the EUR130 billion bailout on Monday.
