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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.
New York - World stock markets skidded into a ditch on Monday after the US government warned General Motors and Chrysler could face bankruptcy and banks could need more aid, stoking fears about the US economy.
Mounting pessimism surrounding this week's Group of 20 meeting of leaders also hurt sentiment.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 254.16 points (3.27%) to 7 522.02 at the market close.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped 43.40 points (2.81%) to 1 501.80 and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index retreated 28.27 points (3.46%) to 787.67.
President Barack Obama toughened his stand on further aid for ailing automakers, saying GM, the largest of the Detroit Big Three, needs a "more aggressive" restructuring plan within 60 days and privately held Chrysler must seal a deal with Italian automaker Fiat within 30 days.
GM chairperson and chief executive Rick Wagoner was forced out at the request of Obama, as the task force unveiled grim prospects for the companies demanding an extra $21.6bn in loans.
Obama said at a White House news conference that if GM and Chrysler cannot come up with viable plans to return to profitability, they may need to use the bankruptcy process "as a mechanism to help them restructure quickly and emerge stronger".
"Financials are sharply in the red after several European central banks intervened to help stave off the demise of some firms, while US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said some banks may need large amounts of assistance," analysts at Charles Schwab & Co said.
"Adding to the pressure on equities, traders are assessing the economic consequences of the possible failures of GM and Chrysler after President Obama's auto task force rejected more taxpayer aide to US automakers."
The resource-heavy South African bourse also took a hammering on Monday, shaken by weaker mining stocks and lower global equities.
The top-40 index of blue-chip stocks dived 3.8% to 18 008.50 points, while the all-share index fell 3.54% to 19 929.04 points.
"We are just following world markets, which have been struggling," said Barend Saayman, a trader at Thebe Securities.
"We are probably going to have a down day on Tuesday as well. We have run very hard in the last two weeks. I think it's a bit of profit-taking now."
Bourse and mining heavyweight Anglo American dropped 8.1% to R151.40. Insurer Old Mutual lost 9.03% to R6.35.
The FTSE 100 of leading British shares closed down 135.94 points, or 3.5%, at 3 762.91, while Germany's DAX slumped 214.32 points, or 3.6%, to 3 689.23. The CAC-40 in France fell 121.28 points, or 4.3%, to 2 719.34.
Earlier in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average sank 390.89 points, or 4.5%, to 8 236.08, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng slid 663.17, or 4.7%, to 13 456.33.
Sapa-AP and Reuters