“The US housing data was worse than expected so the dollar lost against the euro‚ which helped the rand to strengthen and that gave a boost to our bond market‚” a local trader said.
At 15:46‚ the benchmark R157 bond was trading at 5.650% from 5.670% at Wednesday’s close. The R207 was bid at 6.725% and offered at 6.705% from its previous close of 6.740% and the R186 was trading at 7.570% from its previous close of 7.560%.
The rand was bid at R8.2182 per dollar after touching R8.2816 earlier on Thursday from Wednesday’s close of R8.2140.
Dow Jones Newswires reported that US housing starts decreased 1.1% last month from June‚ coming in weaker than forecast.
"US housing starts and building permits data were mixed in July but‚ at a first glance‚ it looks like the recent slow upward trend for housing activity has been confirmed‚" says Newedge Strategy.
Foreigners were net sellers of R1.857bn of South African bonds including repo transactions on Wednesday after net purchases of R833.853m of local bonds on Tuesday‚ data released by the JSE shows.
Nominal cumulative volume was R72.547bn on Wednesday from R208.829bn on Tuesday.
Foreigners were net sellers of R474.020m of local bonds excluding repo transactions on Wednesday after net purchases of R1.104bn of local bonds on Tuesday.
For the year to date foreigners have been net buyers of R65.895bn 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 R65.889bn of local bonds including repo transactions. In 2011 they bought R37.501bn worth of local bonds.