Rand loses more ground against dollar

THE RAND weakened further to a one-month low yesterday, weighed down by lingering uncertainty over whether the finance minister faced arrest.

At 5pm, the rand was bid at R14.2577 to the dollar, 12.45c softer than at the same time on Wednesday.

The rand lost as much as 4 percent when it emerged on Tuesday police had summoned Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan to answer questions over the lawfulness of a spy unit in the revenue service.

The unit regained some ground in early trade yesterday, briefly touching R13.9565, before resuming its slide despite President Jacob Zuma saying he supported Gordhan, although would not be able to intervene in the investigation.

Government bonds also remained on the back foot.