Johannesburg - The South African bond market rallied after the last government auction of the year and disappointing local economic prints on Tuesday morning.
“Bond yields lowered across the board after disappointing economic data‚ such as lower retail sales‚ substantially lower mining production figures‚ coupled with a very strong last government auction of the year‚” said Steve Arnold‚ head of bond trading at Investec.
“With poor economic data there is a better chance of lower interest rates‚” he said.
The South African Treasury on Tuesday allotted R1.1bn worth of R213 bonds at a clearing yield of 7.800% and R1.1bn worth of R2048 bonds at a clearing yield of 8.280%.
At 11:10‚ the benchmark R186 was trading at 7.300% from 7.340% at Monday’s close. The R157 was trading at 5.440% from its previous close of 5.460%. The R207 was bid at 6.375% and offered at 6.345% from 6.395% at its close.
The rand was bid at R8.6880/$ from a close of R8.6679 on Monday.
This week sees the last inflation-linked bond (ILB) auction for the year on Friday. Auctions will resume on January 8 with the normal bond auction and on January 11 with the ILB auction.