Johannesburg - The South African bond market was firmer in
midday trade on Friday after the inflation linked bond (ILB) auction at 11am.
The National Treasury offered R800m worth of I2025‚ I2038 and I2050 bonds. Last
week it only received bids worth R515m for the R800m on offer‚ but this week it
received bids worth R1.88bn. The Treasury allotted R100m of the I2050 after
receiving bids worth R1.1bn‚ R200m of the I2025 from bids worth R210m and R500m
of the I2038 from bids worth R570m.
“The ILB was far better than the past two weeks‚ so that
provided some bounce to the market‚” a local bond dealer said.
At 12:36pm the benchmark R157 bond was trading at 5.385%
from 5.390% at Thursday’s close and 5.350% at Wednesday’s close. The R207 was trading
at 6.430% from its previous close of 6.460%‚ and the R186 was trading at 7.555%
from 7.570% at its previous close.
The rand was bid at R8.6003 to the dollar from Thursday's
close of R8.6415 and Wednesday’s close of R8.6017.