South African bonds were slightly weaker shortly before noon on Monday, with domestic focus squarely on the unfolding political situation within the ANC. Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to deliver the ANC’s birthday address on Saturday, with speculation last week that President Jacob Zuma had been given until Tuesday to resign. This provided some short-term support for the rand, with net foreign purchases of SA bonds and equities of about R5bn having followed in the week after Ramaphosa was elected president. Despite this liquidity, the local bond market was thin on Monday and foreign activity subdued, said Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking analysts. "Sentiment should still drive markets today, with the dollar likely to rebound after a softer end to last week," said TreasuryOne dealer Phillip Pearce. At 11.30am the R186 was bid at 8.59% from 8.54% and the R207 was at 7.24% from 7.21%. The rand was at R12.4136 from R12.3303.
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