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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 African stocks opened weaker on Thursday taking direction from poorly performing Asian markets amid risk aversion in the wake of disappointing US data.
At 09:21 the JSE all share index had weakened 0.86%, with resources losing 1.18%. Platinum producers edged down 0.59% and gold counters shed 2.24%.
Banks weakened 0.42%, financials gave up 0.54% and industrials were off 0.74%.
The rand was bid at 7.85 to the dollar from R7.76 when the JSE closed on Wednesday. Gold was quoted at $1 032.32 a troy ounce from $1 033/oz just before the JSE's last close, and platinum was at $1 313/oz, from $1 301/oz at its previous close.
"We have edged lower this morning. The dollar has strengthened again and there is risk-averse trade in the market. Figures out of the US also were not that great, the consumer is still under pressure," a trader said.
"However, I doubt that we are going to have a big sell off. If you look at the market technically, the Dow seems to be getting oversold. The Dow could fall a little bit more and then we could rally again.
"It's difficult to say what is going to happen for the day. We have data out again this afternoon and I get the feeling that we are close to turning. Things are not as bad as everyone thinks, one needs to look for some buying opportunities soon," he said.
- I-Net Bridge