The South African rand was off its intraday worst levels in late afternoon trade on Friday, helped by exporter dollar sales.

This followed early weakness, which was in line with emerging markets, said an I-Net Bridge report.

At 15:40 (1340 GMT), the rand was bid at 7.1905 per U.S. dollar from an overnight close of 7.2146 on Thursday and 7.14 on Wednesday.

It was bid at 9.1026 to the euro from a previous 9.1873 and Wednesday's 9.0886 and at 13.19 against sterling from Thursday 's close of 13.2980 and Wednesday's close of 13.1090.

"Basically, we have just seen dollar-rand exporters," a currency trader said, explaining the rand's recovery.

Early in the day, the rand weakened in line with emerging markets which came under pressure due to heightened geopolitical tensions.

The trader expected the local unit to trade in a 7.16 to 7.26 range for the rest of the day.

Source: Xinhua