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Johannesburg - South African bonds were trading mostly softer in midday trade on Friday due to a weaker rand.
The local currency has dropped about 10c per dollar on Friday from its overnight levels.
“Bonds have been under pressure the whole week long‚ although the short-end R157 bonds have been better offered on the back of the Monetary Policy Committee’s monetary statement yesterday that was interpreted as hawkish‚” a local trader said.
“A lot of guys are also trying to get out of their positions in the market as positioning has not been good and weakness in bonds have been exaggerated by bad positioning‚ as well as the weaker rand environment‚” he said.
Meanwhile all eyes are on the US non-farm payroll numbers due out at 14:30 that should give an indication of the way forward for US monetary stimulus.
At 11:58 the benchmark R186 bond was trading at 7.880% from 7.800% at Thursday’s close. The R157 was at 6.075%‚ from 6.110% overnight and the R207 was bid at 7.170% and offered at 7.165% from 7.075% at its previous close.
The rand was trading at R9.9707/$ from R9.8626 at Thursday’s close.
