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Feb 13 2012 12:15
Miner Xstrata says it has brought forward maintenance on two furnaces to assist Eskom to save power.
Feb 13 2012 10:43
Although jobs were created, the economy is still 420 000 jobs short of the peak employment level before the 2009 global financial crisis, says Adcorp.
Feb 13 2012 07:58
Greek lawmakers have approved a new round of drastic austerity measures after a long day of street battles between police and protesters left dozens injured.
Johannesburg - South Africa's rand steadied against the dollar on Monday, after hitting a near 7-week high on Friday, and was expected to extend its gains as investors moved back into riskier assets.
Asian stocks rose as strong US job and consumer data on Friday signaled the world's largest economy is steadily recovering, fuelling a move into higher-yielding currencies and equities.
The local bourse looked set to follow the global trend, with the JSE's blue chip Top-40 March futures contract up 1.13% ahead of the market opening at 07:00 GMT. A firmer gold price should also support the resource-heavy local bourse.
The rand was at R7.4045 to the dollar, not far from its close of R7.4085 in New York on Friday. The rand touched R7.3827 on Friday, its strongest level since January 19, according to Reuters data.
"It's starting fairly quietly. I think the rand is going to gain some positive sentiment from (US) Friday's payroll data," David Gracey, head of trading at Nedbank, said.
"It wouldn't suprise me if we break below R7.40 (to the dollar) today towards the R7.35 area."
Government bonds weakened ahead of a busy issuance week on both the corporate and government side. Yields, which move inversely to the price, edged higher.
The yield on the 2015 bond added 3 basis points to 8.205% while the 2036 yield was up 4.5 basis points to 9.005%.
- Reuters