JOHANNESBURG, Sept 28 (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand strengthened early on Monday, helped by an improvement in sentiment toward emerging markets after China reported strong industrial growth data, easing some of last week’s fears about a slower rebound in global growth.

At 0645 GMT the rand ZAR=D3 was 0.55% firmer at 17.0550 per dollar after it weakened almost 6% to a one-month low last week in a broad sell-off triggered by signs of a second wave of coronavirus infections in Europe.

Profits at China’s industrial firms grew for the fourth straight month in August, buoyed in part by a rebound in commodities prices and equipment manufacturing, its statistics office said on Sunday.

The world’s second biggest economy is seen as a bellwether for the health of emerging market economies as it generates a large chunk of export demand, mainly for commodities.

Some caution trading is expected ahead of Tuesday’s presidential