Johannesburg – South African bonds were firm in midday trade on Friday on the back of a stronger rand.
“Foreigners just continue to buy no matter what the rand does‚ so that has provided us with invaluable support‚” a local bond trader said.
At 11:40‚ the benchmark R157 bond was trading at 5.425% from 5.445% at Thursday’s close and 5.510% at Wednesday’s close. The
R207 was bid at 6.510% and offered at 6.495% from Thursday’ close of 6.545%‚ and the R186 was trading at 7.350% from 7.420% previously.
The rand was bid at R8.4058 per dollar from Thursday’s close of R8.4938 and Wednesday’s close of R8.4049.
The National Treasury held an inflation-linked bond (ILB) auction at 11:00 with bids amounting to R1.97bn for the R800m on offer. The Treasury allotted R60m of I2025‚ R425m of I2038 and R315m of I2050 bonds.
Foreigners bought a net R1.039bn of South African bonds including repo transactions on Thursday after net purchases of R1.596bn of local bonds on Wednesday‚ data released by the JSE shows.
Nominal cumulative volume was R65.658bn on Thursday from R48.101bn on Wednesday.
Foreigners were net buyers of R1.004bn of local bonds excluding repo transactions on Thursday after net purchases of R1.791bn of local bonds on Wednesday.
For the year to date foreigners have been net buyers of R68.325bn of local bonds‚ excluding repo transactions. In 2011 they were net buyers of R47.359bn worth of local bonds‚ excluding repo transactions.
In the year to date foreigners have been net buyers of R68.001bn of local bonds including repo transactions. In 2011 they bought R37.501bn worth of local bonds.