By Reuters Staff
(Updates throughout)
JOHANNESBURG, Jan 7 (Reuters) - South Africa’s rand slumped more than 2% against the dollar on Thursday, taking losses since last week to almost 5%, as investor sentiment soured badly on rising COVID-19 infections, a worrying public debt trajectory and the stronger dollar.
Citi said on Wednesday that it had scrapped a trade idea put in place just two days earlier that the rand would strengthen to around 14.53 versus the dollar, making a loss of 3.5% in the process.
By 1655 GMT the rand was trading at 15.4150 against the U.S. currency, down roughly 2.2% on the day.
Warren Venketas, an analyst at IG in Johannesburg, said a sharp spike in coronavirus infections overnight was a factor leading the rand to underperform emerging market peers. The rouble was down roughly 1.5% and the Turkish lira down 0.9%.