Johannesburg - The local bond market was firm in quiet early trade on Friday‚ on the back of an overnight rally in US treasuries.
“Bonds started firmer this morning on the overnight rally in US treasuries. The rand is also off yesterday’s worst levels‚” a local bond trader said.
At 09:02‚ the benchmark R186 was bid at 7.735% and offered at 7.730% from Thursday’s close of 7.750% and Wednesday’s close of 7.695%. The R157 was trading at 5.450% from its previous close of 5.485%. The R207 was bid at 6.520% and offered at 6.505%‚ from its previous close of 6.525%.
The rand was bid at R8.9265 from Thursday’s close of R8.9020 and Wednesday’s close of R8.9020. On Thursday it touched a worst level of R8.9900.
The National Treasury is offering R800m in its weekly inflation-linked bond auction at 11:00. The bonds on offer are the R212‚ the I2038 and I2050.
Foreigners were net sellers of R6.195m of South African bonds including repo transactions on Thursday after net sales of R290.703m of local bonds on Wednesday‚ data released by the JSE show.
Nominal cumulative volume was R52.053bn on Thursday from R47.350bn on Wednesday.
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