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May 27 2012 11:21
There's a price war raging between South Africa's cellphone networks after Cell C lowered the rates of its prepaid calls by more than 34%.
May 28 2012 07:53
The City of Cape Town has spent R175m running the Myciti bus service since the Soccer World Cup compared to an income of R35m, a report says.
May 27 2012 13:09
The oversupply of golf estates has claimed another victim.
Johannesburg - The rand was firmer against the
dollar in noon trade on Friday as it tracked a euro that seemed to have -
for the present - put aside worries about the Greek debt situation.
"Sentiment appears to have turned in favour of risk again," a
local analyst said, adding that the global backdrop was supportive of
further rand strength.
At 11:40 local time, the rand was bid at R7.6080 to the dollar
from its previous close of R7.6552. It was bid at R10.1900 to the euro
from R10.2295 before, and at R12.0075 against sterling from R12.0390
previously.
The euro was bid at $1.3391 from its previous close of $1.3372.
RMB said in a note on Friday morning that global markets were
performing a little better, spurred by Thursday's good German business
confidence figures and data that showed the US job's environment
remained strong.
"It looks as if there will be some further gains today, with a
possible nice boost to sentiment if the Dow passes the 13 000 mark, RMB said.
It also said the way was now open for the rand to gain further ground.
Meanwhile, Dow Jones Newswires reported that concerns about
Greece had receded somewhat after it managed to negotiate its second
bailout deal, and investors were now looking ahead to the second longer-term refinancing operation from the European Central Bank.
In addition, Greece's parliament on Thursday had approved the
private sector involvement programme which included collective action
clauses.
But Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid warned: "Greek
developments still need close monitoring as we move on to the execution
phase.
"Greece still has plenty to do before it gets the required
funding to meet the March 20 redemptions of €14.5bn."
Data today showed that Germany's economy contracted in the
fourth quarter of 2011 by 0.2%, in line with expectations and unchanged
from the first gross domestic product reading.
Meanwhile, the French consumer confidence index rose slightly in February to 82 from 81 in January.
"French consumer confidence seems to hold well despite the
rise in unemployment," said Manuel Maleki, economist at ING Bank.