South African rand weakens as Fed minutes drive risk-off sentiment

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South Africa's rand weakened more than 1% on Thursday as the Federal Reserve's June meeting minutes revealed a hawkish policy stance, prompting investors to move away from riskier assets.

At 1302 GMT, the rand traded at 18.9975 against the dollar, 1.14% weaker than its previous close.

The dollar last traded at 103.180 against a basket of global currencies, around 0.155% weaker, reversing earlier gains.

Minutes of the Fed's June meeting, released on Wednesday, showed that a vast majority of policymakers expected further monetary policy tightening, even as they agreed to hold interest rates steady last month.

Investec analyst Annabel Bishop said in a research note that the rand weakened in response to increased risk-off sentiment.

South Africa's benchmark 2030 government bond was weaker in afternoon deals, with the yield up 12.5 basis points at 10.640%.

(Reporting by Tannur Anders and Anait Miridzhanian;Editing by Promit Mukherjee, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Vinay Dwivedi)