Johannesburg - The South African bond market was mixed in quiet midday trade on Wednesday. Dealers said the long and short end had rallied‚ but the belly was weaker‚ resulting in a butterfly effect as the market waited for direction from the US GDP data due at 15:30.
“There has been some nibbling at both the long and short end‚ but the belly is weaker. The auction offer announcement has resulted in some resistance‚” a local bond dealer said.
At 11:33 the benchmark R186 was trading at 7.430% from 7.450% at Tuesday’s close and 7.335% at Monday’s close. The R157 was trading at 5.390% from 5.400% at its previous close and the R207 was trading at 6.425% from its previous close of 6.410%.
The rand was last bid at R9.0486/$ from R9.0208 at Tuesday’s close and R9.0897 at Monday’s close.
The National Treasury will offer R700m each of the R186‚ R213 and 2048 bonds at the weekly bond auction on Tuesday.
Dow Jones Newswires reported that the consensus forecast was for a slowdown in the US economic growth rate to a 1.0% quarter on quarter seasonally adjusted annualised rate in the fourth quarter from 3.1% in the third quarter. The range of forecasts is from 0.3% to 2.0%.