South African government bonds were slightly softer on Friday afternoon, as the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) prepared to announce whether it would reinstate corruption charges against former President Jacob Zuma. The NPA was expected to announce its decision at 3.30pm. Analysts said the announcement of charges against Zuma could create further positive sentiment towards SA, as a strong signal of antigraft efforts by the government. Trade is expected to be range bound ahead of a long-awaited Moody’s pronouncement next Friday on SA’s credit status. Moody’s is the only major ratings agency to have SA’s sovereign credit rating above junk status.; should it downgrade SA further, government bonds will fall out of a number of global bond indices. At 3pm, the R186 was bid at 8.125% from 8.110% and the R207 at 6.735% from 6.72%. The rand was at R11.9368 to the dollar from R11.9006. The US 10-year treasury was last seen at 2.8356% from 2.8292%.
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