Johannesburg - South African bonds were untraded in quiet early trade on Tuesday, after the Christmas long weekend.
Markets are expected to be very thin this week, with most players away for the week between Christmas and New Year.
By 08:45 the benchmark R157 bond was bid at 7.400%, and offered at 7.385 from its previous close of 7.400%.
The rand was bid at R6.7076 to the dollar from its previous close of R6.7305.
"The market has been flat throughout the last few trading sessions and it's completely dead this morning. We aren't expecting any fireworks today," said a local trader.
Foreigners were net sellers of R39.397m of South African bonds including repo transactions on Friday, after net sales of R396.037m of local bonds on Thursday, Bond Exchange of South Africa statistics show.
Nominal cumulative volume was R10.723bn on Friday from R13.422bn on Thursday.
Foreigners were net sellers of R39.437m of South African bonds excluding repo transactions on Friday after net sales of R755.252m of local bonds on Thursday.
In the year to date foreigners have been net buyers of R60.981bn worth of local bonds, excluding repo transactions.
So far for total transactions, including repo transactions, foreigners have been net buyers of R48.468bn worth of bonds.
In 2009 foreigners were net buyers of R27.755bn worth of local bonds, excluding repo transactions, while for total transactions, including repo transactions, foreigners were net sellers of R3.3bn worth of bonds.