Rand snaps five-day winning streak

The rand snapped its five-day winning streak as SA entered its third week under national lockdown and uncertainty over the economic effect of the Covid-19 outbreak continued to dominate sentiment.

After initially gaining to trade below R18/$, the SA currency weakened 1% to R18.15/$ during the day as its emerging-market peers also weakened, as hope that the spread of Covid-19 will soon peak fades. The rand tends to suffer in times of global turmoil as investors search for safety in developed-country assets such as US treasuries.