South African bonds were largely unchanged on Thursday afternoon on a firmer rand and a weaker US bond market. Trade was cautious on further concern of possible impending downgrades by ratings agencies. S&P Global Ratings and Moody’s are to announce the result of their latest reviews on November 24. Moody’s is the only ratings agency that has SA one notch above sub-investment grade. The yield on the benchmark R186 rose more than 40 basis points after Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba’s medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS) last month. Since then it has stabilised at about 9.4%, but analysts say local bonds remain vulnerable. Futuregrowth bond analyst Wikus Furstenberg said foreign sales after the budget statement was fairly small. "Bond yields may rise a lot more should foreign investors decide to commence with more selling." At 3.01pm, the yield on the R186 was unchanged at 9.39% and the R207 at 8.055% from 8.075%. The rand was at R14.3113 to the dollar from R14.3944. The US bon...
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