The South African rand was weaker against major currencies in late afternoon trade on Tuesday after stop losses were triggered through the 6.03 level. Market analysts said that the local unit could depreciate further should it close above 6.06.

At 15:55, the rand was bid at 6.0376 rand per dollar from an overnight close of 5.9525. It was bid at 7.4298 rand per euro from Monday's 7.3083.

"We saw some stops triggered above 6.03 with some stale shorts squeezed out of those positions. There was nothing really fundamental about the move other than the dollar strengthening a bit overnight," a market analyst said.

He added that with gold weakening slightly, the rand's easing might be justified and should the local unit close above 6.06, it could weaken to 6.14.

"If it closes above 6.06, I would be bearish on the rand. Below 6.06 it could be headed down below the 6.00 handle," he commented.

A currency trader said earlier that the rand's move had been triggered by a euro-rand play, with offshore players buying euro and selling rand. This then spread to dollar-rand.

The analyst said that the offshore demand for both dollars and euros could be justified given the inflows into South African bonds seen recently. With bonds failing to make more headway, it was understandable that offshore players would get impatient and begin to exit the market.

Source: Xinhua