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Johannesburg - The rand weakened alongside other emerging markets on Monday as investors dumped high-yielding assets in a wave of risk aversion fanned by political tensions in Ukraine.
By 15:43 GMT the local unit was trading at R10.8185/$ to the dollar, down 0.57% from Friday's close in New York.
"Everything has been responding to this depressing news of the tensions between Russia and Ukraine and the potential for that to escalate," said ETM market analyst Sean McCalgan.
"It's essentially a broader move away from emerging market currencies as a whole and with that performance the rand is a middle of the road performer. It isn't really out of tune with what's going on globally."
Government bonds also weakened, pulling yields for the 2026 bond 4.5 basis points lower to 8.6% while the 2015 instrument at the shorter end of the curve dropped 4 basis points to 7.16%.
Analysts said the rand's move lower had been tempered by the lingering positive effect of last week's budget where Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan vowed to keep spending in check even as a general election looms, winning praise from ratings agencies.
