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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.
Johannesbur - South African stocks ended firmly in the black on Wednesday led by resources, amid good performing metal
prices.
However, a local equities trader noted that a strong rand offset further gains on the local bourse.
By 17:00 the JSE all share index was up 1.14%, with resources 2.15% better off, the gold mining index added 1.49% and platinum miners picked up 2.49%. Banks and financials gained 0.51% and 0.87% respectively, while industrials advanced 0.26%.
The rand was bid at R7.47 to the dollar, from R7.56 seen at the JSE's close on Tuesday. Gold was quoted at $1 137.71 a troy ounce from $1 126.74 at the JSE's last close. Platinum was at $1 581.50/oz from $1 565/oz at the JSE's last close.
A local equities dealer said: "Metal prices firmed during the course of the day, pushing resources up. Markets looked like they wanted to go higher, but a stronger rand curbed additional gains, weighing on the bourse somewhat.
"On the international markets, concern over Greece appears to have subsided for now," he said.
Dow Jones Newswires reported US stocks opened higher on Wednesday, boosted by smaller-than-expected private sector job losses and new plans unveiled by Greece to manage its budget.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 13 points, or 0.1%, at 10419 in early trading.
Brightening the labour market outlook, payroll giant Automatic Data Processing reported that the private sector lost 20 000 jobs in February, less than half the anticipated drop, according to its national employment report published with consultancy Macroeconomic Advisers. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had expected to see a loss of 50 000 jobs. The
February employment drop was the smallest since employment began falling in February 2008.
Also boosting market confidence, the Greek government announced on Wednesday a new austerity plan totalling €4.8bn to ensure it can meet its deficit-cutting pledge this year, including steep cuts in civil service salaries and entitlements. Greece will also raise its sales tax by two percentage points.
- I-Net Bridge