Johannesburg – South African bonds
were weak in thin afternoon trade on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s
gross domestic product (GDP) data release. Monday was a bank holiday
in the UK.
“It was a very dull day with London
out of the market. In addition‚ few players wanted to take a large
position ahead of tomorrow’s GDP release‚” a local bond trader
said.
At 15:36‚ the benchmark R157 bond was
trading at 5.590% from 5.560% at Friday’s close. The R207 was bid
at 6.680% and offered at 6.655% from 6.655%‚ and the R186 was
trading at 7.580% from 7.555%.
The rand was trading at R8.3941 per
dollar from R8.3520 at Friday’s close.
GDP is likely to have registered growth
of 3.3% quarter on quarter (q/q) on a seasonally adjusted and
annualised (saa) basis in the second quarter‚ from 2.7% in the
first quarter‚ according to a poll of leading economists by I-Net
Bridge.
The range of forecasts among eleven
economists ranged from 1.6% to 4.3%.
Statistics SA (Stats SA) will release
the latest GDP figures on Tuesday‚ August 28 at 11:30.
Foreigners bought a net R1.386bn of
South African bonds including repo transactions on Friday after net
sales of R147.273m of local bonds on Thursday‚ data released by the
JSE shows.
Nominal cumulative volume was R53.605bn
on Friday from R62.611bn on Thursday.
Foreigners were net buyers of R1.479bn
of local bonds excluding repo transactions on Friday after net sales
of R87.951m of local bonds on Thursday.
For the year to date foreigners have
been net buyers of R65.166bn 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 R64.114bn of local bonds including repo
transactions. In 2011 they bought R37.501bn worth of local bonds.