ohannesburg - South African bonds were up to nine basis points weaker in late trade on Friday, which a trader attributed to a sell-off.

By 15:50, the benchmark R157 bond was trading at 7.830% from its previous close of 7.740%, while the R207 was trading at 8.710% from its previous close of 8.620%. The R186 was trading at 8.960% from 8.890%.

The rand was bid at 6.9163 to the dollar from its previous close of 6.9226.

"We sold off quite a bit from late last night. There's lots of activity in the swaps, based on aggressive paying, hence we sold off and the rand isn't helping matters either. We saw a bid coming through after the US non-farms, but nothing to get too excited about. I think the market could still sell off a bit," said a local trader.

Dow Jones Newswires said that US employers added 192 000 jobs in February. Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires had expected 200 000. The unemployment rate was 8.9% in February, compared with 9% a month earlier and a consensus estimate of 9.1%.

Earlier in the day, another trader said bonds were weaker as a result of too much paper in the market.

"We've had a lot of auctions this week, so there's a lot of paper in the market," he said.

Foreigners were net sellers of R986.705m of South African bonds including repo transactions on Thursday after net sales of R495.579m of local bonds on Wednesday, Bond Exchange of South Africa statistics show.

Nominal cumulative volume was R52.611bn on Thursday from R57.026bn on Wednesday.

Foreigners were net sellers of R777.487m of South African bonds excluding repo transactions on Thursday after net purchases of R27.823m of local bonds on Wednesday.

For the year to date, foreigners have been net sellers of R9.458bn worth of local bonds, excluding repo transactions. In 2010 foreigners bought net R57.064bn worth of local bonds, excluding repo transactions.

For the year to date for total transactions, including repo transactions, foreigners have been net sellers