S.Africa's rand steady vs dlr, stocks open higher

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's rand steadied against the dollar on Friday after firming overnight and local stocks opened higher in line with global markets.

The JSE's Top-40 index of blue chips was up 0.75 percent shortly after the start of trade at 0700 GMT.

The rand was trading at 7.58 against the dollar at 0706 GMT, not far off Thursday's New York close of 7.59.

Global stocks rose were up ahead of U.S. payrolls data later in the day, boosting appetite for higher yielding but risky currencies such as the rand.

This risk appetite was expected to boost the rand in the short term, analysts said.

"Yesterday's consolidation in dollar/rand is a step in the right direction. We continue to look for more of the same today," said Absa Capital in a note, seeing the rand return to 7.20/dollar in the near future.

The rand has firmed by about 20 percent against the dollar this year, gains the central bank has said could lead to imbalances in the economy.

Data showed at 0600 GMT the central bank increased its foreign currency reserves by $488 million in October, helping to boost net reserves by 2.3 percent to $38.784 billion.

South Africa's government bonds firmed, with the yield on the 2015 note down 3.5 basis points to 8.325 percent and that on the 2036 bond down 4 basis points to 8.60 percent.