eBusiness Weekly
South African government bonds were little changed on Tuesday morning, stable after the Easter long weekend, and with few major catalysts driving the market.
Focus on Tuesday was largely on global equity markets, with tech stocks under pressure as major US tech companies face public scrutiny, as well as the ire of the administration of President Donald Trump.
Locally, Stellenbosch University’s Bureau for Economic Research is scheduled to release the Absa sponsored manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) for March at 11am.
A Trading Economics consensus is that PMI will have improved slightly to 51 points from 50.8 in January.
“Local bonds, like the rand, also remain range-bound with support being found above 8%,” said Rand Merchant Bank bond analyst Gordon Kerr. Recent data showing inflation printing at 4%, and an improving fiscal back drop, made bonds an attractive prospect should yields spike.
At 10am, the R186 was bid at 7.99% from 7.98% and the R207 at 6.775% from 6.785%. The rand was at R11.8115 to the dollar from R11.8443.
The US 10-year was last seen at 2.7573% from 2.7382%. – BusinessLive
