Johannesburg - The South African bond market was a touch firmer in quiet midday trade on Wednesday ahead of retail sales data due at 13:00.
“We seemed to want to go firmer this morning‚ but then some selling stopped the gains in their tracks. This was probably some overhang from yesterday’s auction‚” a local bond trader said.
At 12pm the benchmark R186 was trading at 7.310% from 7.315% at Tuesday’s close. The R157 was trading at 5.320% from 5.330% at its previous close and the R207 was bid at 6.310% and offered at 6.285% from its previous close of 6.300%.
The rand was last bid at R8.9172/$ from R8.9032 overnight.
The National Treasury will auction R500m of R213 bonds‚ and R800m each of R209 and R2048 bonds on February 19.
Consensus figures show that retail sales are likely to have increased by just 1.6% compared with December last year‚ after an annual rise of 3.4% in November.
Analysts expect the sluggish trend to carry on this year‚ even though economic output is likely to receive a boost from an improved global environment.