The South African rand remained mixed in late afternoon trade on Friday as direction from the United States caused some strength initially, but failed to limit losses against the euro and pound.

At 15:50 (1350 GMT), the rand was bid at 7.1425 per dollar from an overnight close of 7.1580 and intraday worst level of 7.2875 Thursday.

It was bid at 9.1646 to the euro from a previous 9.1496 and at 13.2150 against sterling from Thursday's close of 13.1712.

Earlier in the day importer demand placed pressure on the local currency as it failed to strengthen much below the 7.1000 to the dollar level, said an I-Net Bridge report.

In the afternoon dollar weakness saw the rand go as low (strong) as 7.0500 to the dollar at one stage, only to rebound to 7.1425 as some emerging market jitters again reared their head and the strength against the dollar was also not matched against the other crosses, said the report.

Source: Xinhua