Rand reaches three-week low, falling to worse than R17/$

The rand weakened to its worst level in three weeks on Wednesday afternoon, breaching R17/$, as concern about a rise in new Covid-19 cases and simmering US-China tension put risk assets under pressure.

At 4.10pm, the rand had weakened 1.49% to R17.0391/$, reaching a three-week low of R17.09 in intraday trade. The currency last traded above R17/$ two weeks ago. It had weakened 1.21% to R19.8948/€ and 1.56% to R21.6879/£. The euro had weakened 0.26% to $1.1670.