At 1517 GMT, the rand traded at 15.7050 against the dollar, around 1.4% weaker than its previous close.

The South African Reserve Bank raised its main lending rate by 25 basis points to 3.75%, which would normally support the rand, but some traders focused on the gradual rate path the monetary policy committee appeared to favour.

"The pace of policy tightening will likely be much slower than what the market had priced for," said Kieran Siney, co-head of financial markets at ETM Analytics.

Razia Khan at Standard Chartered said the rand was weakening in sympathy with the lira, which plunged more than 3% after Turkey's central bank defied inflation of 20% to slash interest rates by another 100 basis points.

Johannesburg-listed stocks dipped, with the All-share index closing down 0.11% at 70,867 points.

Financial services group Investec was an outlier, rising 1.9% after it reported a more than two-fold rise in profit and said it would distribute a 15% stake in asset manager NinetyOne to shareholders.

The yield on the government's 2030 bond dipped 1 basis point to 9.455%, reflecting a slightly firmer price.

At 0625 GMT, the rand traded at 15.3050 against the dollar, 0.23% firmer than its previous close.

The dollar eased back from near an almost 16-month high versus major peers on Monday, as traders awaited fresh clues on the U.S. economy after bringing forward bets last week for a Federal Reserve interest rate hike on the back of red-hot inflation.

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) starts its three-day monetary policy committee meeting on Tuesday, with the decision on interest rates due on Thursday.

A Reuters poll found that thirteen of 20 economists surveyed between Nov. 10-12 said the repo rate would be kept unchanged at 3.50%, while the other seven predicted a hike of 25 basis points.

S.Africa's rand firms in early trade as risk appetite returns

But in an extra question answered by 12 economists, a median of responses suggested there was an almost 50% chance the SARB would hike interest rates at this meeting.

Prior to that, eyes will be on consumer price inflation numbers and retail sales figures due to Wednesday.

In fixed income, the yield on the benchmark 2030 maturity was down a single basis point to 9.39%.