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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 rand firmed against the US dollar on Wednesday afternoon, breaking the 10.00/dollar level.
At 15:42, the local currency was trading at R9.94 to the US dollar - a gain of 2.81%.
"The rand has come back because it totally overshot," said Efficient Group economist Dawie Roodt.
This was good news for the petrol price. "As the rand is firmer, the petrol price should fall by more," Roodt said.
"And now that the rand has firmed and is likely to get better, it won't be necessary for the SA Reserve Bank to raise rates.
Had the rand continued around R11 to the US dollar, the SARB would have had no choice but to hike rates, Roodt said.
The US unit gave up some ground against major currencies ahead of the rates decision by the US Federal Reserve later on Wednesday.
The euro was bid at $1.2793 from $1.2715 late on Tuesday in New York, while gold was quoted at $759.10 a troy ounce from $746.50/oz overnight.
Global markets are again more positive following a very strong recovery on Wall Street on Tuesday, where the Dow ended up almost 11%. The Nikkei ended up 7.7%, the London FTSE100 was last up 5.7% and the JSE is 6.2% stronger.
US stocks opened slightly lower on Wednesday, with the Dow off 20 points and the Nasdaq down five points.
Dow Jones Newswires reports the dollar is lower across the board early on Wednesday in New York as global stock markets rise amid expectations the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates later in the day.
However, the dollar was able to pare some of its overnight losses after a US durable goods report on Wednesday morning that showed an unexpected rise in orders during September, boosted by higher car and aircraft orders.
Global stock markets climbed overnight following a 10% rise in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Tuesday. This sharply reduced the safe-haven buying of the greenback that has been seen throughout the global financial crisis and economic downturn, which allowed the euro and other currencies to rebound.
- Sapa and I-Net Bridge