Picture: THINKSTOCK
Picture: THINKSTOCK

LOCAL bonds drifted weaker on Tuesday with little in the way of news to drive the local market and many players having taken time off in what is an abbreviated trading week, with Monday and Friday being public holidays.

Traders were awaiting he release of consumer inflation data on Wednesday.

Inflation, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), is expected to have tracked higher in February from 6.2% year on year in January.

At 3.55pm, the benchmark R186 bond was bid at 9.320% and offered at 9.310% from a Friday close of 9.160%.

The middle-dated R207 was bid at 8.800% and offered at 8.790% from a previous close of 8.640%.

Traders said that in the absence of any market-moving news, bonds were taking their cue mainly from a weaker rand at the moment. At 3.55pm the local currency was at R15.3380 against the dollar from its last close of R15.2022.

Nedbank CIB said in a note on Tuesday that bond inflows had continued to be the driving force last week with consistent inflows, totalling R7.32bn, taking the year-to-date bond inflow to R18.31bn.

"Last week also saw a tentative inflow into the equity market loaded toward the latter part of the week, reversing the outflow from (earlier) last week.

"For the year to date, equity flows remain poor with an outflow of R11.75bn largely offset by the bond inflow to take total inflow to R6.563bn. This compares favourably to the outflow of R10.76bn for the same period last year," the bank said.