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Rand stronger for third day
June 6, 2012--The rand gained one percent against the dollar in early Wednesday trade, strengthening for the third straight day from last week's three-year lows on the back of firmer commodity prices.
Dealers said the currency was going through a natural pull-back from oversold levels at R8.71 last week but would be likely to encounter resistance at R8.30.
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Source: FIN24
IFC and African Development Bank expand local currency finance
June 6, 2012--The International Finance Corporation (www.ifc.org), a member of the World Bank Group, and the African Development Bank (www.afdb.org) are to work together to facilitate local currency lending and bond issuance in Africa.
They agreed to collaborate and benefit from each other’s local currency bond issues. This will enhance their local currency funding capacity to support their clients’ development projects.
On 1 June they signed an ISDA Master Agreement to enter into cross-currency swap transactions and for each it is the first with another multilateral financial institution.
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Source: Africa Markets
JSE tracks global stocks firmer
June 5, 2012--The JSE lifted during its opening session on Tuesday, tracking relatively positive sentiment among investors on bets of economic stimulus by some central banks.
At 09:20 local time‚ the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index was up 0.29% to 33‚170.92 points‚ with resources gaining 0.60% and gold counters rallying 1.35%‚ while platinum counters dipped 0.10%.
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Source: FIN24
New bonds to be issued this week
June 5, 2012--South Africa may issue five new bonds as early as this week, helping to plug a 10-year benchmark gap and extend the government yield curve by a further seven years, a top Treasury official said on Tuesday.
There is strong and growing demand from international investors for bonds in Africa’s largest economy and biggest debt market, with some analysts even seeing it as a relatively safe haven during the eurozone’s debt crisis.
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Source: FIN24
Rand slightly softer on global concerns
June 4, 2012--The rand softened against the dollar on Monday as fears of a global slowdown dealt another blow to risk sentiment among investors.
At 06:38 GMT, the rand was trading at R8.6035 against the dollar, slightly softer than Friday’s New York close of R8.59.
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Source: FIN24
India admits to no fiscal firepower
June 4, 2012--India's finance minister admitted on Monday that the government had no scope to increase public spending to spur the flagging economy, but said interest rate cuts might be possible.
Shock economic growth figures published last Thursday showed the Indian economy growing at 5.3% in the January-March period, the slowest quarterly growth figure in nine years.
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Source: FIN24
African exchanges embrace ETFs
June 4, 2012--Africa is fast becoming a hotspot for the exchange-traded fund market, with South Africa in particular driving growth.
The total value of the ETF market on South Africa’s national bourse, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, grew 60% to R4.8bn ($622m) at the end of 2011 compared with the same period a year before.
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Source: Financial News
IMF Working paper-Exchange Rate Pass-Through in Sub-Saharan African Economies and its Determinants
June 1, 2012--Summary: This paper analyzes the exchange rate pass-through to domestic prices and its determinants in sub-Saharan African countries. It finds that the pass-through is incomplete.
The pass-through is larger following a depreciation than after an appreciation of the local currency. The average elasticity is estimated at about 0.4. It is lower in countries with more flexible exchange rate regimes and in countries with a higher income. A low inflation environment, a prudent monetary policy, and a sustainable fiscal policy are associated with a lower pass-through. The degree of pass-through has declined in the SSA region since the mid-1990s following marked improvements in macroeconomic and political environments.
view the IMF working paper-Exchange Rate Pass-Through in Sub-Saharan African Economies and its Determinants
Source: IMF
JSE flat in tentative trade
June 1, 2012--The JSE fell early in its opening session on Friday before recovering slightly in volatile trade as market players looked to the US jobs report later in the session for direction.
At 09:26 local time the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index edged down 0.6% to 33?122.36 points with resources flat (-0.02%) while gold counters shed 0.87% and platinums counters lost 1.31%.
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Source: FIN24
Rand hits fresh low on US jobs data
June 1, 2012--The rand fell 2.2% to a fresh three-year low against the dollar on Friday after below-consensus US jobs data pointed to a slowdown in the world's largest economy.
The rand briefly touched R8.71 to the dollar, its weakest since May 2009, before coming back slightly to R8.6670 by 12:36 GMT.
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Source: FIN24
