News

The World Cup effect – investors beware

Investing around the World Cup is going to be a difficult business, with cold logic and fundamental decision- making likely to take a back seat during the course of the event.
The World Cup kicks off on Friday and so investors should start preparing for a bumpy rise - researchers have… »

Productivity to be affected by World Cup 2010

The World Cup is turning out to be a sold-out affair with South Africans snapping up the majority of tickets, but the global event is bound to pose serious challenges with regards to productivity in the workplace.
Senior researcher at… »

Q2 BCI an indication Q2 growth will be weaker

The second quarter Rand Merchant Bank/Bureau for Economic Research (RBM/BER) Business Confidence Index (BCI) could be evidence that economic growth in the second quarter of this year was weaker than that seen in the first three months of 2010.
The BCI fell seven points to a level of 36 in the… »

BCI falls to 36 index points in Q2: RMB/BER (2)

The Rand Merchant Bank/Bureau for Economic Research (RMB/BER) Business Confidence Index (BCI) slowed in the second quarter of this year after surging by 20 index points over the courseof just two quarters.
The index eased by seven points to a level of 36, far from the key 50index point level.
… »

Stocks AM: Firm commodity prices support JSE

The JSE opened cautiously firmer on Tuesday, following the lead of Asian markets which were also slightly firmer despite Wall Street closing 1% lower on Monday.
A local trader said firmer commodities prices were helping the local market.
By 09:20 the JSE all share index had added 0.93%,… »

Panic station: Inside the bond markets

The eurozone is quaking, thanks to the men who control the $80 trillion bond market. At its epicentre is the Chicago Mercantile Exchange – when traders here are nervous, nations are rocked, writes Stephen… »

SA May reserves US$41.600bn vs Apr US$42.341bn

The South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) dollar-denominated holdings of gold and foreign assets fell by
US$740 million to $41.600 billion in May from $42.341 billion in April, data released on Monday shows.
Net reserves fell $567 million to $37.928 billion.
Foreign exchange reserves were down $825 million, while… »

Asia Stocks, Euro Tumble After U.S. Jobs, Hungary; Bonds Rally

June 7 (Bloomberg) — Asia stocks dropped the most in 15 months and the euro weakened to a four-year low after U.S. employment rose less than economists estimated and Hungarian leaders raised concerns about a potential default. Bonds rose.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 3.3 percent to 109.73 at 1:30 p.m. in… »

How can an ethical fund hold BP?

Shareholders are the latest victims in the oil spill disaster – with no solution in sight, BP’s share price is plummeting as fast as the black gold is pumping into the Gulf of Mexico…. »

Euro “dead in 5 years”

The euro will have broken up before the end of this Parliamentary term, according to the bulk of economists taking part in a wide-ranging economic survey for The Sunday Telegraph…. »