Johannesburg - The South African bond market was flat in dull midday trade on Monday as there was nothing to move the market.
“The rand seems to have found a stable level for the moment. We are waiting to see which way the rand lemmings move next‚ and bonds will follow at a more measured pace‚ but for now there is nothing to move the market‚ so volumes are very light‚” a local bond dealer said.
At 11:46 the benchmark R186 was trading at 7.345% from 7.350% at Friday’s close and 7.370% at Thursday’s close. The R157 was bid at 5.385% and offered at 5.365% from 5.380% at its previous close and the R207 was bid at 6.330% and offered at 6.300% from its previous close of 6.320%.
The rand was last bid at R8.9544/$ from R8.9422 at Friday’s close and R9.0686 at Thursday’s close.
On the rand pushing past the key psychological barrier of R9.00/$ on Wednesday last week Standard Bank said: “There was some commodity price weakness on the day‚ but commodity and emerging market currency performance was more mixed‚ and the rand under-performed by a wide margin across both currency categories.