The rand firmed by 13 cents against the dollar in early trade on Tuesday morning, to change hands at R14.26/$ at 10:48, up 0.89% on the day. 

This comes as the greenback weakened slightly against a basket of its currency peers. The spot dollar index - its value relative to a basket of six foreign currencies - was 96.92 just before 11:00, down 0.2%.

Andre Botha, senior currency dealer at TreasuryONE, said in a commentary on Tuesday morning that the dollar's relative weakness may be linked to the Fed.

"Major US equity indices all closed lower on Monday as markets expect another hike from the Fed this week.

"Nasdaq, Dow Jones and the S&P 500 all lost over 2% yesterday and the sell-off in stocks continued this morning in the Asian markets with the Nikkei, Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite all losing ground.

"The USD, on the other hand, lost some ground as a dovish tone is expected from the Fed over the economic outlook for next year. Concerns around future oil demand amid weakening global economic growth and doubts over the impact of planned production cuts led by OPEC has led to the price of Brent Crude falling below $60/barrel," he said.   

Traders in African markets have had a year to forget, and there are signs the rout’s not over yet.The continent’s stocks and bonds have performed worse than those of all other emerging-market regions in 2018, reversing their outperformance of last year.

The selloff has left equities in nations such as South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya at or near their cheapest levels in years. And the yields of Eurobonds issued by governments have soared to a point last seen in early 2016, when investors fretted China’s economic slowdown was gaining momentum.But bargain-hunters won’t necessarily jump in next year.

Risks abound from tense elections in the two biggest economies - Nigeria and South Africa - to low oil prices, potential credit-rating downgrades and the prospect of sovereign defaults.

Tokyo stocks opened lower on Tuesday, extending losses on Wall Street, as investors looked ahead to meetings of the US and Japanese central banks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 1.07% or 230.76 points at 21 276.12 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was down 1.14% or 18.19 points at 1 576.01.

"Following falls in US shares, investors remain cautious about market prospects," said Okasan Online Securities in a commentary.