Johannesburg - South African bonds remained firm
in midday trade on Thursday, but were off the session's best levels as
the weaker rand weighed.
At 11:50, the benchmark R157 bond was trading at 6.510% from
Wednesday's close of 6.540%. The R207 was bid at 7.640% and offered at
7.635% from a previous close of 7.675% and the R186 was trading at
8.300% from its close of 8.335%.
The rand was bid at 8.0368 against the dollar from yesterday's close of 7.9993.
"We were looking better this morning - I guess it was on the
rand recovery but then the rand weakened again and the market has
reacted to that.
"There is a bit of residual stock in the market; foreigners
sold quite a bit of R208s yesterday so that overhang is also affecting
the market," a trader said.
Foreigners were net sellers of R255.446m of South
African bonds including repo transactions on Wednesday after net
purchases of R208.093m of local bonds on Tuesday, data released
by the JSE shows.
Nominal cumulative volume was R59.030bn on Wednesday from R237.132bn on Tuesday.
Foreigners were net sellers of R406.822m of South
African bonds excluding repo transactions on Wednesday after net
purchases of R917.880m of local bonds on Tuesday.
For the year to date foreigners have been net buyers of
R36.643bn 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 R32.580bn of local bonds including repo transactions. In 2011 they bought
R37.501bn of local bonds.