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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 - A slightly firmer South African
rand tracked the euro in the afternoon session on Thursday, having earlier
reacted negatively to rumours of government plans to freeze the unit.
The currency did not react to the South African Reserve Bank's (Sarb's)
Monetary Policy Committee decision to keep the repo rate unchanged at 7.0%.
At 15:46 the rand was bid at 7.4718 to the dollar from 7.4100 at its
previous close. It was bid at 11.2058 to the euro from its previous close of
11.1156 and was at 12.3860 against sterling from 12.2928.
The euro was bid at $1.4991 from $1.5007 overnight.
A local trader said: "We are unchanged and have seen very little action
this afternoon. We are tracking the euro with an upside of 7.54 against the
dollar, and bids at 7.46. We are just waiting to see which way we turn right
now."
The rand was earlier spooked by news reports on economy minister Ebrahim
Patel's plans to freeze the rand, but they were quickly quashed, according
to a report by Bloomberg News, citing a spokesperson for Ebrahim Patel,
Minister of Economic Development.
Dow Jones Newswire reports that the dollar was slightly stronger against
the euro in morning New York trading on Thursday, as sagging global stocks
sapped some of the risk appetite that sent the euro past $1.50 a day
earlier.
After falling to fresh 14-month lows against the euro on Wednesday, the
dollar gained overnight on disappointing Chinese growth data, which
bolstered the greenback's appeal.
The dollar's performance against the euro during the session will depend
on the stock market: US stocks are set for a slightly lower open, and if US
stocks follow the earlier downward path of Asian and European equities, the
euro is likely to have trouble resuming its march past $1.50.
Labour market data published on Thursday helped remind investors that
the recovery remains fragile: US weekly jobless claims increased by 11 000
in the week ended October 17; economists had expected a smaller increase of
4 000.
Oil and other commodities also fell overnight, denting the euro and
other higher-yielding currencies.
- I-Net Bridge