South African government bonds were a fair bit weaker on Thursday afternoon, with the yield on the benchmark R186 rising to the symbolic 8% level, implying a higher cost of borrowing for the government than at the start of the week.The weakness in local bonds came after the Reserve Bank’s monetary policy committee cut interests on Wednesday. It gave no indications, however, of further cuts in the near term, which the market had hoped for.The rand also fell on the day, further worsening the state of local bonds which, earlier in the week, reached their best level since early 2015.Sasfin Wealth head of fixed-income dealing Ashley Dickinson said a weaker rand was unlikely to have a lasting effect on local bonds and that investors were likely to look for "bargains in the weakness".At 3.42pm, the R186 was bid at 8.0%, from 7.9%, and the R207 at 6.79% from 6.69%. The rand was at R11.8762 to the dollar from R11.7752.The downturn in the local bond and currency markets coincided with data sh...
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