The South African bond market remained in a strong position at midday on Monday, was in line with the strong rand. The rand rallied last week after the US Federal Reserve intimated that it would raise US interest rates at a gradual pace over the year as opposed to an aggressive one-off rise. At one point last week the rand was the best-performing currency in the world and South African bonds tracked that performance as demand for rand-denominated instruments rose. Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) analysts said the rand-dollar exchange rate "still wanted to go lower" as "ongoing post-Fed dollar weakness remains the key driver, but local data should also help". The RMB analysts said the current account data, which is to be released with consumer price index (CPI) data on Wednesday, should help the rand. They expected "only a 2.4% of GDP current account deficit in Wednesday’s release". However the analysts said the rand was already looking overextended, which could limit further gains. At 11.2...
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