Investors Pile Into South African Bonds at Weekly Debt Sale

Demand surged at South Africa’s weekly government bond auction as investor optimism grew ahead of next week’s budget.

Primary dealers placed orders for 14.2 billion rand ($883 million) of debt, almost five times the 3 billion rand of securities offered on Tuesday, according to central bank data. That compares with a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.9 at last week’s sale.