Johannesburg - South African bonds were flat in early trade on Tuesday, with little in the way of news to offer direction.
In the first auction for 2011, the Treasury will auction R900m worth of R204 bonds and R1.2bn worth of R209 bonds today at 11:00.
By 08:30 the benchmark R157 bond was unchanged at 7.340% from its previous close, while the R207 was bid at 8.195% from its previous close of 8.185%. The R186 was bid at 8.335% from 8.320%.
The rand was bid at R6.8310 to the dollar from its previous close of R6.8098.
"It's still very quiet. The first auction of the year is a relatively large one and should go very well. For the week we're looking at the eurozone for guidance, with Italy, Spain and Portugal all having their first auctions for 2011 as well. The US has a very big 30-year auction on Friday," said a senior bond expert.
Activity is expected to pick up as the week progresses and players return to work after the holidays.
Foreigners were net sellers of R2.728bn of South African bonds including repo transactions on Monday after net sales of R258.541m on Friday, Bond Exchange of South Africa statistics show.
Nominal cumulative volume was R54.181bn on Monday from R31.541bn on Friday.
Foreigners were net sellers of R6.416m of South African bonds excluding repo transactions on Monday after net sales of R308.990m on Friday.
For the year to date, foreigners have been net buyers of R288.583m worth of local bonds, excluding repo transactions. In 2010 foreigners bought net R57.064bn worth of local bonds, excluding repo transactions.
For the year to date for total transactions, including repo transactions, foreigners have been net buyers of R5.737bn of local bonds. In 2010 they bought net R44.541bn worth of bonds.