The South African bond market held steady on Friday morning, and was likely to remain so for the rest of the session, ahead of the long weekend. Friday also marked the last trading day of a month marred by the fallout from the controversial Cabinet reshuffle. President Jacob Zuma fired Pravin Gordhan as finance minister late in March, prompting rating agencies S&P Global Ratings and Fitch to downgrade the country’s debt. The yield on the benchmark R186 bond rose as high as 9.2% in the days following the Cabinet changes and the rand weakened. But the local fixed-income market has steadily recovered from the setback throughout this month, assisted mainly by bond inflows. The uncertainty about the pace of the interest rate hiking cycle in the US has weighed on the yield on the US 10-year note and on the dollar, which is on track to end weaker for the second month in the row. The yield on the benchmark R186 bond rose to 8.71% in early trade on Friday, from 8.70% on Wednesday. Thursday w...
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