Johannesburg - Bonds drifted off their best levels by midday on Wednesday, trading in a range, with little fresh news to offer direction. Earlier bonds were buoyed by news of the successful issue of the $2bn sovereign bond on Tuesday as well as the firmer rand.
By noon the short-term government R154 bond was bid at 7.050% and offered at 7.030% after closing at 7.015% on Tuesday and the medium-term R157 was at 8.170% from 8.140% at its previous close. The long-term R186 was at 8.930% from 8.905% previously.
The rand was bid at R7.5693 to the dollar from R7.5953 at its previous close.
A local trader said bonds had drifted off their best levels, but it really has nothing to do with fundamentals and more to do with the fact that this is a week with little major economic data drivers.
"Bonds are in a range - there is not really any fresh news to drive the market," he said.
Traders said the sovereign bond issue had received excellent demand, with issuance of $2bn at a surprisingly good rate. This was positive news for both bonds and the currency.
South Africa on Tuesday successfully issued $2bn in dollar denominated bonds - the largest amount ever raised by South Africa and completes funding for the 2010/11 fiscal year.
The bond is a 10 year one, maturing 9 March 2020. The coupon is 5.5% - the lowest coupon South Africa has ever negotiated in the US dollar market.
This translates into a yield of 197 basis points above the US benchmark of 352 basis points. The interest rate South Africa will pay is 5.59% per annum. The bond was lead managed by Deutsche Bank and Standard Bank and co-led by Nedbank.
The only data release this morning was the SACCI Business Confidence Index (BCI) for February, which increased by 1.8 index points to 83.0 from 81.2 in January.
This is 1.5 points below the February 2009 level. According to SACCI, the BCI has performed as expected in February 2010 with business confidence responding to positive medium term economic developments.
The National Treasury announced that it will auction R700m worth of R203 bonds and R1.4bn worth of R207 bonds on March 9, at its weekly auction.
Foreigners were net buyers of R1.154bn of bonds including repo transactions on Tuesday, after net sales of R831.962m of local bonds on Monday, Bond Exchange of South Africa statistics show.
Nominal cumulative volume was R119.845bn on Tuesday from
R51.033bn on Monday.
Foreigners were net buyers of R1.155bn of bonds excluding repo transactions on Tuesday, after net sales of R452.971m of local bonds on Monday.
In the year to date foreigners have been net buyers of R6.781bn worth of local bonds, excluding repo transactions.
So far for total transactions, including repo transactions, foreigners have been net buyers of R8.011bn worth of bonds.
In 2009 foreigners were net buyers of R27.346bn worth of local bonds, excluding repo transactions, while for total transactions, including repo transactions, foreigners were net sellers of R2.424bn worth of bonds.
- I-Net Bridge