South African bonds were firm in afternoon trade on Thursday on the back of foreign buying.
“We are seeing a fair amount of foreign buying‚ especially in the long end of the curve‚” a local trader said.
At 15:40 the benchmark R157 bond was trading at 5.350 percent from Wednesday’s close of 5.380 percent and Tuesday’s close of 5.475 percent. The R207 was bid at 6.445 percent and offered at 6.415 percent from a previous close of 6.490 percent and the R186 was trading at 7.260 percent from its previous close of 7.320 percent.
At the end of May the R157 closed at 6.390 percent‚ the R207 at 7.645 percent and the R186 at 8.375 percent.
The rand was bid at R8.4010 against the dollar after reaching R8.5486 on Wednesday morning before closing at R8.3973.
Implats rejected Cosatu claims that it was manipulating union membership verification to benefit Amcu.
Govt revenue fell by 7.2 percent year on year in January to only R47.562bn‚ Treasury data showed.
Our greatest challenge in SA isn't poverty or inequality, but unemployment, argues Cees Bruggemans.
