Johannesburg – South African bond
yields ticked weaker in late trade on Friday amid very thin volumes.
“We saw foreign selling in the market
on Wednesday‚ but that was not the reason for us trading weaker.
There were very view traders around to influence the market today‚
so bonds were influenced by the weaker rand‚” a local trader
said.
“Worse than expected Chinese surplus
figures did not have an effect on the local bond market‚ because
there weren’t enough local traders around to read the report‚”
he added.
China's trade surplus in July came in
narrower than expected at $25.1bn from $31.7bn in June‚ falling
short of a median $35.2bn forecast by economists in a Dow Jones
Newswires survey. Exports rose 1% in July from a year earlier‚
worse than June's 11.3% rise. Imports rose 4.7% from a year earlier‚
down from the 6.3% rise in June.
At 3.44pm‚ the benchmark R157 bond
was trading at 5.610% from Wednesday’s close of 5.595%. The R207
was bid at 6.580% and offered at 6.575% from its previous close of
6.560% and the R186 was bid at 7.400% and offered at 7.385% from its
previous close of 7.370%.
The rand was trading at R8.1029 against
the dollar from the previous close of R8.0793.
Meanwhile US Treasuries were boosted on
Friday as the latest data from China fuelled worries about the global
economy‚ Dow Jones Newswires reported.
The flight into safe assets broke the
bond market's five-day losing streaks‚ providing bond bulls some
initial signs that the recent sell-off might have petered out.
Optimism that both the European Central
Bank and the Federal Reserve may provide new stimulus to support the
economy had encouraged investors to allocate out of Treasuries and
into stocks.
Foreigners were net sellers of R1.252bn
of South African bonds including repo transactions on Wednesday after
net purchases of R1.006bn of local bonds on Tuesday‚ data released
by the JSE shows.
Local markets were closed on Thursday
for a public holiday.
Nominal cumulative volume was R48.348bn
on Wednesday from R68.138bn on Tuesday.
Foreigners were net sellers of R1.283bn
of local bonds excluding repo transactions on Wednesday after net
purchases of R281.604m of local bonds on Tuesday.
For the year to date foreigners have
been net buyers of R66.730bn 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 R64.491bn of local bonds including repo
transactions. In 2011 they bought R37.501bn worth of local bonds.