{"id":15688,"date":"2012-10-18T06:05:06","date_gmt":"2012-10-18T04:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/10\/s-africa-bonds-rand-firm-focus-on-midterm-budget\/"},"modified":"2012-10-18T06:05:06","modified_gmt":"2012-10-18T04:05:06","slug":"s-africa-bonds-rand-firm-focus-on-midterm-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/s-africa-bonds-rand-firm-focus-on-midterm-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"S.Africa bonds, rand firm; focus on midterm budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

JOHANNESBURG<\/span> Oct 17 (Reuters) – South African government
\nbond prices rose on Wednesday after a well-received weekly
\nauction and as the market speculated the government will tighten
\nspending after two ratings downgrades.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Bonds also tracked the rand currency, which rallied more
\nthan 1 percent in line with a stronger euro after Spain avoided
\na ratings downgrade by ratings agency Moody’s, which would most
\nlikely have triggered selling of Spanish bonds.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Local assets, however, remain vulnerable to a swing in
\nsentiment as investors fret about wildcat strikes that have hit
\nSouth Africa’s mining sector, with companies reporting heavy
\nlosses in production since August.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

But on Wednesday the yield on the three-year government bond
\n closed five basis points lower at 5.36 percent and
\nthat for the longer dated 14-year paper shed 12.5
\nbasis points to 7.61 percent.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“After the success of yesterday’s weekly bond auction,
\nrenewed interest in South African bonds from offshore, coupled
\nwith a stronger rand, has seen yields move lower across the
\nboard today,” said Steve Arnold, a bond trader at Investec.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“One would have to wait for next week, when we have
\ninflation out on Wednesday and more importantly the midterm
\nbudget speech on Thursday to give us some guidance as to how the
\ngovernment finances are looking at the end of the first
\nhalf-year. That will drive us forward thereafter.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan hinted to parliament earlier
\nthis week he would rein in spending in next week’s midterm
\nbudget, which he will present in the wake of ratings downgrades
\nfor South Africa by both Moody’s and SP.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“We do not expect major adjustments to the Treasury’s
\nissuance plans in the 2012 medium term budget policy statement,”
\nBank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Matthew Sharratt said.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The rand hit a 1-1\/2 week high of 8.5772\/dollar and
\nwas at 8.5975 by 1729 GMT, up more than 1 percent from Tuesday’s
\nNew York close.<\/p>\n

(Reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa; Editing by Hugh Lawson)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JOHANNESBURG Oct 17 (Reuters) – South African government bond prices rose on Wednesday after a well-received weekly auction and as the market speculated the government will tighten spending after two ratings downgrades. Bonds also tracked the rand currency, which rallied more than 1 percent in line with a stronger euro after Spain avoided a ratings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-15688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}