South African government bonds settled into narrow ranges on Thursday morning, with market participants finding little reason to push the market in either direction. "Overall, we still expect our market to be range-bound, with only Moody’s or the [South African Reserve Bank meeting] … events that could take us through the 8% area," said Rand Merchant Bank analyst Neville Mandimika. Moody’s is scheduled to release results of its ratings review on SA next Friday, which will be followed by the Reserve Bank’s monetary policy committee meeting a week later. Moody’s is the only major ratings agency to still rate SA’s debt at investment grade, S&P Global and Fitch cut it to junk in 2017. Moody’s decision is likely to shape the monetary policy committee’s decision on interest rates. During the last meeting, Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago kept rates on hold, citing several uncertainties, including the Moody’s ratings review. At 9.40am, the R186 was bid at 8.080% from 8.075% and the R207 at 6...
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