The rand maintained a weaker bias against the major currencies in lacklustre trade on Tuesday, 20 August 2013.
"There are some tentative signs of stability this morning but the risk is clearly for more rand and local bond weakness as the emerging-market sell-off continues and threatens to become a rout‚" Rand Merchant Bank wrote in a morning note.
In early morning trade the rand was bid at R10.2160 to the dollar from Monday's close of R10.1720.
Against the euro‚ the rand was bid at R13.6274 from its previous close of R13.5841 and was at R15.9848 against sterling from R15.9376 at its previous close.
The euro was bid at US$1.3341 from US$1.3336 at Monday's close.
"Based on how the core markets are trading this morning‚ one could make a case for some rand recovery today‚" the bank said.
On Monday the rand was dragged to its weakest level in six weeks as speculation regarding the timing of cuts to the US Federal Reserve's bond-purchase programme caused a rout in emerging-market currencies.
India's rupee plunged to a lifetime low shaking off central bank intervention by the Reserve Bank of India to stabilise the currency.
"Today's limited data and event risk will potentially be helpful in bringing some stability‚" RMB said.
"Whether this combined with the back-off in Treasury yields is enough to stabilise emerging-market sentiment is the call for the day‚" it said.
