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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 marginally firmer on Wednesday morning on
the back a firmer euro against the dollar.
At 08:48
local time the rand was bid at R7.5012 to the dollar from R7.5046 at Tuesday's
close. It was bid at R9.5383 to the euro from R9.5590 before and at R11.4030
against the sterling from R11.4049 at its previous close.
The euro
was bid at $1.2697 from $1.2719 overnight.
RMB
analysts said in their morning report that the anticipated good earnings
reporting season is boosting investor confidence.
"While the pace of global growth might be slowing, US corporate earnings
continue to grow nicely. This is boosting investor confidence globally, with
the rand in turn responding nicely. Add EUR/USD gains through $1.2700 and USD/ZAR
has tested down to the R7.52 level.
"While US retail sales at 14:30 could generate some further rand moves,
trading during the US corporate season is generally quite bizarre; we trade
flat through the morning, jump as US equities open, with yet further volatility
late South African time as corporate earnings come out.
"Unless you have some insider information on how these corporate results
are going to play out, the resulting direction of the rand is anyone's
guess," the analysts said.
"The strengthening euro is the story. If the rand breaches the R7.52 level
to the dollar we see it going all the way to R7.45. We see the currency trading
within a narrow band of between R7.50 - R7.60 to the US dollar," a local
trader said.
Dow
Jones Newswires noted the dollar rose against the yen in Asia Wednesday on
speculation that good earnings reports from US firms suggest important US
data due later in the day may turn out to be better than expected.
In
addition to the US data, investors will also be paying attention to the
Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes due at 18:00 GMT.
"This will be important today because if the Fed is dovish in the
document, that would probably weigh on recently-cheerful sentiment and can act
as a cue for investors to resume dollar-selling again," the Newswires
reported.
- I-Net Bridge