Rand plunges to R15 to the dollar as emerging markets suffer

The rand plunged more than 8% alongside the Turkish lira on Monday morning‚ reaching R15.41 to the dollar around 2.30am.

The R15/$ level was last reached in June 2016.

The rand managed to claw its way back under R15 by 6.20am‚ trading at R14.75 to the dollar. The rand fell to R17.41 to the euro‚ but recovered to R16.78/€‚ and R19.49 to the pound. At 6.20am it was trading at R18.81/£.

Reuters reported that the Turkish lira pulled back from a record low of 7.24 to trade at about 6.80 after Finance Minister Berat Albayrak said Turkey would start implementing an economic action plan on Monday morning.

Other emerging market currencies to suffer from the lira’s plunge included the Indian rupee‚ which slid to an all-time trough‚ while the Indonesian rupiah hit its lowest in almost three years‚ prompting intervention from the country’s central bank.

The emerging market currency rout rattled Asian markets‚ with Tokyo’s Topix down more than 2%.

In Hong Kong‚ Naspers’s main investment Tencent was down 2.3% to HK$36‚40‚ indicating that the JSE is likely to join the global rout.

In Sydney‚ BHP was down 1.25% to A$33.30‚ contributing to a 0.6% drop in the ASX 200 index.

- BusinessLIVE