Stocks eased with bullion producers on the back foot as spot gold prices slid to nine-month lows.
The rand stumbled to a session low of 14.3000/dollar, and was not far off that at 14.2700 by 15.58 GMT, down 1.57% on the day.
The rand was among the five worst performers in a basket of emerging market currencies monitored by Reuters, including the Hungarian forint, Colombian peso, Brazil’s real and the Russian rouble.
“It’s basically the US dollar pushing stronger and US Treasuries spiking again,” Treasury One currency trader Andre Botha said.
“People are expecting more interest rates hikes from the US so they are positioning themselves for that and that has been emerging markets negative.”
South Africa’s own central bank is set to hold its repo rate at 7% on Thursday and through next year, according to a Reuters poll.
