Johannesburg - The South African bond market was slightly softer but off its worst levels in midday trade on Tuesday despite good bid-offer ratios at the weekly bond auction at 11:00.
The National Treasury offered R500m worth of R123 bonds‚ as well as R800m each of R209 and R2048 bonds and received bids worth R2.21bn‚ R3.345bn and R1.845bn respectively.
“We were surprised at how strong the bids were at the auction given the soft rand. This indicates that there is strong underlying demand‚ so if the rand regains its poise‚ then bonds should go stronger‚” a local bond trader said.
At 12:00 the benchmark R186 was trading at 7.330% from 7.300% at Monday’s close and 7.280% at Friday’s close. The R157 was trading at 5.350% from 5.340% at its previous close‚ and the R207 was trading at 6.320% from its previous close of 6.305%.