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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 softer against major currencies in noon trade on Friday on the back of illiquidity and a rise in risk aversion ahead of crucial US jobs data later in the day.
At 12:15 the rand was bid at R9.6782 to the dollar from an overnight close of R9.6341. It was bid at R13.2750 to the euro from a previous R13.2314 and at R14.6997 against sterling from R14.6968 before.
The euro was bid at $1.3720 from $1.3702 overnight.
"The rand is weaker on a rise in risk aversion ahead of important US jobs data this afternoon. But the market is still pretty thin as well. So it's likely to continue bouncing around until liquidity returns to the market," a local currency trader said.
"The rand may come off a bit on this morning's disappointing
South African new vehicle sales continued to decline in December, falling 27.1% compared with December 2007, figures from the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA) on Friday show.
This follows a 28.3% y/y decline in November.
Dow Jones Newswires reports that the dollar is a little high on Friday as risk aversion rises ahead of US payrolls later in the day. The consensus is for a 525K fall, but economists see the risks are for a larger drop.
The euro is down after ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet lifted speculation of an early rate cut.
- I-Net Bridge