/ 24 January 2003

Bonds open firm on stronger rand

South African bonds opened firmer on Friday as the rand kept near the 8,70 rand per dollar level compared with the 8,80 level on Thursday afternoon.

In after-hours trade on Thursday the rand went to 8,69, but its best level so far this morning was 8,7080. On Wednesday the rand hit this year’s worst level of 9,0773, while the R150 yield touched 11,30%.

At 0845 local time the key government R150 bond was yielding 11,08% — eight

basis points firmer than Thursday’s close of 11,160%, while the longer-dated

R153 was yielding 10,550% from 10,610% at the previous close. The newer R194

was bid at 10,735% from 10,790% at its previous close.

The rand was last quoted at 8,7180 to the dollar from 8,7050 at Thursday’s New York close and 8,9655 at Wednesday’s close and 9,0505 at Tuesday’s close.

“Bonds are moving on the stronger rand. We are seeing strong demand for the

R194 as investors seek out pockets of value,” a bond trader said.

The next major set of figures — the key December consumer and December

producer inflation — are due on January 28 and 29 respectively. Money supply data will be released on January 30 and foreign trade data on January 31.

Foreigners were net sellers of R823,825-million worth of South African bonds on Thursday after net buys of R263,442-million worth of local bonds on Wednesday, Bond Exchange of South Africa statistics show. Nominal cumulative volume was R30,238-billion on Thursday from R31,499-billion on Wednesday. – I-Net Bridge