Related Articles
Top Stories
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 edged lower on Monday in line with European markets but MTN jumped 9% after it revived merger talks with India's Bharti Airtel.
The rand edged firmer after hovering around Friday's closing level for most of the day, largely tracking moves in the euro, with trade thin due to a market holiday in the United States and Britain.
The JSE Top-40 index of blue chips dipped 0.14% to 20 283.06 points and the broader all-share index shed 0.08% to 22 407.28 points.
Volumes were also thin on the bourse, and MTN dominated trade, with financial stocks among the hardest hit.
"Overall it's been quiet... MTN is probably the only thing that's making a bit of noise," one trader said.
"The price is fairly priced, we'll have to see whether it goes through. In general, the news have been welcomed and third of the market is on MTN," the trader said.
MTN said it has revived merger talks with India's Bharti to create a $61bn telecoms giant spanning Africa, Asia and the Middle East a year after their previous attempt foundered on who would control the combined entity.
MTN stock jumped 9.16% to R129.90.
The rand was trading at 8.25 against the dollar at 17:35, 0.5 percent stronger than its previous close.
Elsewhere on the bourse, fixed-line phone firm Telkom tumbled 33.6% to R38.50 as it traded ex-dividend. The company will pay a special dividend on Friday after it sold part of its stake in Vodacom to Vodafone and unbundled the rest to shareholders last week.
Mass-market lender African Bank fell 3.6% to R26.75 after forecasting tough trading conditions in the second half as its struggling furniture unit continued to be hit by bad debts and weak sales.
Government bonds were marginally weaker, with investors eyeing the week's data and rates announcement due on Thursday.
The yield, which moves inversely to the price, on the 2015 bond was up 1.5 basis points for the session at 8.175% , while the 2036 yield was the same margin higher at 8.245%.
Economists are divided over the rates decision, with 16 polled by Reuters predicting another 100 basis point cut in the repo rate and 9 expecting a smaller 50 basis point cut.
- Reuters