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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 - South Africa's rand
hovered close to the previous day's five-month highs against the
dollar on Thursday but could come under renewed pressure in
coming days as fears of global contagion from euro zone debt
problems, particularly in Greece, persist.
Improved risk appetite has lifted the rand by about five
percent against the greenback since the start of this after
tumbling nearly 23 percent last year as Europe's debt woes drove
investors to traditional safe-haven assets, away from emerging
markets seen as carrying more risk.
By 15:42 GMT the rand was at 7.6655 to the dollar,
just 0.13 percent off Wednesday's close at 7.6555.
Market analysts said the currency's current strong run,
which this week saw it reach its highest level since late
September last year, could soon run out of steam as the threat
of a default by Greece lingers.
"We think that the market also has to digest the likelihood
that even once and if the Greece situation is partly solved,
Portugal is standing in the wings to kind of take up that
place," Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Matthew Sharratt
said.
"So there's a lot of what we think could be negative news
coming from Europe in the weeks and months ahead. We expect to
see by the time we get to the second quarter more evidence of a
very weak global growth picture and that we think might be
negative for markets."
The rand should however find some support from portfolio
flows into South African government bonds, which are offering
much higher returns compared with near-zero rates in developed
countries.
"Inflows into the local bond market by non-residents have
remained strong, while the sharp reduction in volatility has
boosted the appeal of the carry trade," Standard Bank strategist
Nomvuyo Guma said.
On Thursday the yield on the three-year bond
closed half a basis point lower at 6.395 percent while that for
the 2026 issue gave up seven basis points to 8.065
percent.
The debt market should be propped up by the low probability
that the South African Reserve Bank will cut interest rates
despite waning economic growth, as it eyes rising inflation.
"The Reserve Bank is likely to keep interest rates on hold
this year and possibly even throughout 2013. This means that the
local bond market should remain attractive for non-residents as
it still offers a relatively high yield," Guma said.