JOHANNESBURG: South African government bonds weakened on Wednesday and the rand held steady against the dollar with investors wary of the uncertainty over Greece's debt negotiations with its creditors.
The yield on the 2026 benchmark instrument rose 8 basis point to 7.695 percent at 1510 GMT, its highest in six weeks.
"There is a lot of fluctuation in the euro zone, Greece bonds due to the uncertainty," said Marten Banninga, head of bond trading at WWC Securities. "It's unfortunate that this is impacting our market despite the fact that we had a better than surveyed number of inflation year on year."
The Greek government said it will request a loan extension for up to six months from its creditors on Thursday morning, although Germany said there will be no such deal unless Greece sticks to the terms of its current bailout. The local market largely shrugged off news that South Africa's headline consumer inflation slowed more than expected year-on-year in January and that December retail sales rose above market expectations.
The rand was trading at 11.6860 to the dollar, not far off its Tuesday closing level of 11.6740.
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