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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 - Metal stocks led the upside as the JSE remained in the black by noon on Friday, taking direction from firmer international markets.
By 12:03, the JSE all share index had added 1.95% with resources gaining 2.31%. Gold counters put on 1.69% and platinum miners were up 3.10%. Banks advanced 2.42%, while financials collected 1.93% and industrials rose 1.56%.
The rand was last bid at R7.96 to the dollar from R8.03 when the JSE closed on Thursday. Gold was quoted at $945.70/oz a troy ounce from $935.40/oz at the JSE's last close, and platinum was at $1 210.50/oz, from $1 184.50/oz at its previous close.
"Resources and gold stocks are once again leading," a local trader said.
"We are following world markets. The banking sector lost some momentum after the interest rates decision yesterday, but today the sector is looking good.
"The dollar has weakened against the euro. That has pushed these commodity prices up, and has filtered through to the stocks as well.
"There are signs of a recovery in the economy and that is supporting the market. Locally, there isn't any substantial news, we are just following global markets. We will eye the manufacturing data in the US next week and we will take direction from there," he said.
Dow Jones Newswires reports that the FTSE 100 traded up 0.6%, benefiting from a return of confidence to the equity markets after strong gains on Wall Street on Thursday, albeit off intraday highs. The oil and resources sectors take the plaudits, with the return of crude above $71/bbl helping heavyweights BP and Shell. Also the M&A talk running through the miners helps. The banking sector has also been buoyant, despite news from the
continent that UBS is raising more capital, with the Bank of England noting on Friday a better-than-anticipated improvement in market conditions over recent months. Eyes will be on US personal income and spending data for May at 12:30 GMT.
The FTSE 100 had last edged up 0.21%.
US stocks are seen opening little changed on Friday as the market waits on US spending and income data, said Joshua Raymond at City Index. "I think it will be very quiet to start off with, the rally last night was significant enough for a lot of people to lock in profit. We've got some key data this afternoon and I expect the market to be flat until we get there."
He called DJIA down 9 points and S&P 500 unchanged at 920.
- I-Net Bridge