The South African bond market was stable on Tuesday morning, and in a much stronger position than a week or two ago, when the yield on the benchmark R186 spiked above 9%. Throughout the recent political turmoil, however, the local bond has attracted offshore buyers. Over the past week, foreigners were net buyers of local bonds worth R3.39bn, according to the JSE data, and have bought a net R32.43bn so far in 2017. "We remain cautious on the political front as we are not convinced that the new finance ministry will sell the rating agencies a believable story," said Ashley Dickinson, head of fixed-income dealing at Sasfin Securities. President Jacob Zuma fired Pravin Gordhan as finance minister last month, prompting S&P Global Ratings and Fitch to downgrade the country’s debt, which increases borrowing costs. New Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba this week sets off on an international road show to try to restore investor confidence in SA. Investors have turned their attention to world ma...
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