Bonds mostly softer in thin trade

Johannesburg - South African bonds were mostly a bit softer in midday trade on Wednesday, which a trader attributed to some selling of local bonds.

The benchmark R157 bond was a touch firmer, mainly on the back of the strong rand.

At 11:50, the benchmark R157 bond was trading at 6.435%, from its previous close of 6.450%. The R207 was trading at 7.690% from a previous close of 7.675% and the R186 was trading at 8.180%, from its close of 8.175%.

The rand was bid at 7.7721 against the dollar from its previous close of 7.7900.

"It's very quiet. We're seeing a bit of sellers on the lower levels, but the market is honestly not doing much. The R157s were at one stage up to 49 and then it came back and now it's just hanging here. Liquidity is very thin, we aren't seeing any buyers," a Cape Town based trader said.

Foreigners were net buyers of R1.532bn of South African bonds including repo transactions on Tuesday after net sales of R1.021bn of local bonds on Monday, data released by the JSE shows.

Nominal cumulative volume was R197.818bn on Tuesday from R55.772bn on Monday.

Foreigners were net buyers of R1.528bn of South African bonds excluding repo transactions on Tuesday after net sales of R1.022bn of local bonds on Monday.

For the year to date foreigners have been net buyers of R6.694bn 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 R5.861bn of local bonds including repo transactions. In 2011 they bought R37.501bn of local bonds.