JOHANNESBURG: The South African rand firmed on Friday after U.S. inflation data came in line with expectations, taking off worries from investors' minds that the Federal Reserve could go for an aggressive taper plan.

The rand traded at 15.945 against the dollar at 1510 GMT, 0.11% stronger than its previous close, but remained in weak territory on worries over surging COVID-19 cases led by the Omicron variant in South Africa.

U.S. consumer prices in November jumped the most in nearly four decades as the cost of goods and services rose broadly amid supply constraints, but came in at 6.8% as expected by economists polled by Reuters.

South Africa reported more than 22,000 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, a record during the current fourth wave of infections and inching rapidly towards a peak hit during the third wave.

South African rand strengthens ahead of Q3 GDP data

The Omicron variant, however, has not led to a spike in deaths, and early anecdotal accounts suggest it may be causing mainly mild illness. This has given some respite to both the local currency and stock markets.

The main indexes on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) posted their best session since March on Tuesday, but have been losing ground since then.

On Friday, the benchmark all-share index closed down 0.72% at 71,686 points and the blue-chip index of top 40 companies ended down 0.59% at 65,390 points.

However, both posted weekly gains and hovered around their all-time highs hit earlier this week.

The South African government's 2030 bond was slightly weaker with the yield increasing 0.5 basis points to 9.490%.