Dealers were poised for further losses on the local unit in afternoon trade when the United States market returns from a long weekend, with traders expected to do some catch up by offloading risky positions.

The rand was trading at 7.14 at 0640 GMT, 0.31 percent down on its previous close on Monday.

"The US dollar-South African rand has done better than our near-term target of 7.15 (and) looks set to reach the 7.28-7.30 area over the next couple of days," said Judy Padayachee, a technical strategist at Absa Capital.