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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 JSE was 52 points weaker in early trade on Friday as it took direction from the Dow, which slipped in Thursday's session on the back of higher than expected jobless claims.
At 09:32 the JSE all share index had eased 0.19%, with resources down 0.10%, gold miners weakening 0.83% and platinum producers flat, down 0.10%.
Banks declined 0.51%, financials were off 0.32% and industrials edged down 0.26%.
The rand was bid at 7.55 to the dollar, from 7.52 when the JSE closed on Thursday. Gold was quoted at $1 106.32 a troy ounce from $1 117.07 at the JSE's last close, and platinum was at $1 434.50/oz, from $1 421.50/oz the bourse's previous close.
"The Dow came down last night on the back of higher than expected jobless claims. That pulled us down. It's still all about the carry trade story - the dollar is strengthening still. A lot of investors in carry trades are liquidating their positions," a trader said.
Dow Jones newswires reported European bourses are expected to open largely flat on Friday after banks and miners' shares pressured indexes to a lower close on Thursday.
Asian stock markets are lower on Friday in the wake of Wall Street's slip and with resources stocks lower across the region after a sharp fall in base metal and gold prices.
Japan's Nikkei ended down 0.2% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was last down 0.8%.
US stocks fell on Thursday as global credit concerns pulled down commodities prices, sending DuPont and Chevron lower, while a low-priced follow-on share offering for Citigroup weighed on the financial sector.
The DJIA closed down 132.86 points, or 1.27%, to 10308.26, marking its third straight day of declines.
The slump in stocks and commodities came as the dollar climbed, with traders worrying about the prospects for earlier-than-anticipated interest-rate increases. Global credit also became a renewed worry after Standard & Poor's cut its credit rating on Greece and some Greek banks.
- I-Net Bridge