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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 JSE was flat at noon on Tuesday as no real news came in to affect the market.
A local trader said that trade was volatile with evidence of a bit of profit-taking at work.
The European crisis had remained a focus, whiles defensive stocks had begun to show strength. Gold stocks were seeing some buying activity and defensives such as British American Tobacco were holding up.
At 12:00 local time, the all share index was static (0.09%). Gold shares recovered 0.94%, however platinums declined 0.78%, and resources decreased 0.13%. Banks took up 0.82%, financials rose 0.35%, and industrials added 0.14%.
The rand was bid at 8.26 to the dollar, unchanged from the JSE's close on Monday. Gold traded at US$1,663.30 a troy ounce from US$1,658.61/oz at the JSE's previous close, while platinum was quoted at US$1,496.50/oz, from US$1,483.20/oz at the previous close.
Dow Jones Newswires reported that European stock markets were slightly higher on Tuesday as market participants attempted to use previous session losses as an excuse to snap up some gains, but debt worries continued to shape the agenda.
European markets opened broadly flat.
Confidence has soured after ratings firms sharply criticised last week's European Union summit, underscoring rising concerns that an accord struck by EU leaders hadn't done enough to contain the debt crisis. Fitch Ratings predicted a "significant" economic downturn in Europe and said that the sovereign-debt crisis was likely to continue throughout 2012, while Moody's Investors Service said the crisis remained in a "critical and volatile stage."
Consequently, the risk of further sovereign-credit downgrades across Europe remains high for the coming months, especially as economic growth weakens, said Credit Agricole in a note to clients. Overnight, Moody's dampened confidence further by placing eight Spanish banks on review for possible downgrade, citing additional pressure from economic weakness and risk from a struggling commercial real-estate market.
Asian share markets dropped on Tuesday amid fresh doubts about Europe's latest plan to contain the region's debt crisis. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average lost 1.2%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.4% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slipped 0.7%. South Korea's Kospi Composite dropped 1.9%, while China's Shanghai Composite was also off 1.9%.