Monday, March 19, 2007

Asian Stocks Advance, Led by Toyota and Honda on Weaker Yen

Asian stocks climbed for a second day, led by Japanese exporters after the yen extended a slide against the dollar and euro. Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. gained

Read more at Bloomberg.com

European Stocks Rise on Takeover Outlook; ABN Amro Paces Gain

European stocks rebounded from last week's losses on speculation ABN Amro Holding NV will be acquired and Imperial Tobacco Group Plc will raise its bid for Altadis SA.

ABN Amro surged to a record after a person familiar with the situation said Barclays Plc is in talks about buying the largest Dutch bank. Altadis jumped, leading tobacco stocks higher. TUI AG, Europe's largest tour company, had the biggest gain in more than three years on plans to buy First Choice Holidays Plc.

Read more at Bloomberg.com

Canadian Stocks Rally on Takeover, Interest Rate Speculation

Canadian stocks had their biggest gain in almost two months, led by resource and financial companies, on speculation a sell-off last week was overdone, given commodity prices and continuing takeovers.

EnCana Corp., Alcan Inc. and Manulife Financial Corp. paced gains. Stocks were also helped by expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve will keep borrowing costs unchanged this week, and may even signal interest rate cuts.

Read more at Bloomberg.com

U.S. Stocks Rise on Takeovers for 2nd Biggest Gain of the Year

U.S. stocks had their second- biggest gain of the year, helped by $17 billion in takeovers and speculation that lower borrowing costs will keep the pace of buyouts at a record.

ServiceMaster Co. surged to the highest since 2002 as the nation's largest provider of lawn-care and landscaping services agreed to be taken private. Community Health Systems Inc. said it will buy Triad Hospital Inc. for $5.1 billion. TXU Corp., target of the biggest leveraged buyout earlier this month, rose on speculation it may get a better bid.

Options traders are starting to bet policy makers will lower interest rates to counter the effects of falling real- estate prices and fuel more acquisitions as the year progresses. Federal Reserve policy makers meet this week to decide on borrowing costs.

Read more at Bloomberg.com

Asia shares up as risk appetite returns, yen soft

Tokyo's Nikkei average rose more than 1 percent on Tuesday, as exporters such as Kyocera Corp. benefited from a weaker yen, and other Asian markets gained as some risk appetite returned to world markets.

Oil prices rose, extending a rally begun on Monday as gasoline soared ahead of the peak U.S. summer driving season.

Gold strengthened from levels in New York, where it gained more than $1 an ounce, as confidence returned to the market after the precious metal breached a key resistance of $650 last week.

Read more at Reuters.com

Return of investors triggers gold price advance

Gold rose to its highest in more than a week on Monday, driven by speculative buying and a return of investor confidence after the recent sell-off.

Silver and platinum hit two-week peaks, while palladium prices climbed to their highest since March 9.

Spot gold rose as high as $656.25 an ounce and was quoted at $654.70/655.45 by 1506 GMT, against $651.90/652.90 in New York late on Friday.

Read more at Reuters South Africa

Rand gains on dollar, remains under pressure

South Africa's rand clawed back some losses against the dollar on Monday, boosted by strength on global stock markets and higher metals prices, but was seen remaining under pressure ahead of key data this week.

The domestic currency was weak against the euro, the currency of its main trading partner, and not far off a 4-1/2 month low against the greenback despite paring back some of its recent losses.

The unit was trading at 7.4361 to the dollar at 1515 GMT, 0.5 percent stronger than its previous New York close of 7.4775 after bouncing between 7.5120 and 7.41 during the day.
It was at 9.8850 against the euro, just off a 5-1/2 month trough touched on Friday.

Read more at Reuters South Africa

S.African stocks rise, led by Steinhoff

South African shares closed stronger on Monday as investors welcomed a takeover deal by industrial and retail group Steinhoff.

The Johannesburg Top-40 index of blue-chip stocks gained 1.36 percent to 23,579.07 points while the All-share index added 1.25 percent to 26,161.53 points.
The trader said there was no real market moving news on Monday outside of Steinhoff's 15 billion rand all-share offer to buy retailer JD Group.

Under the terms of the deal, JD Group shareholders will receive 3.6 Steinhoff shares for each JD share

Read more at Reuters South Africa

SA sued for R2bn over mine law

European mining companies are claiming over R2bn in compensation from the South African government for damages suffered as a result of the coming into effect of the Mineral and Petroleum Resource Development Act (MPRDA).

Read more at FIN24.co.za

Retail confidence defies rates

While retail sales growth slowed in the first quarter of 2007, the decline was much less than expected, resulting in business confidence among retailers showing only a marginal decline.

This was the finding of the latest Bureau for Economic Research (BER) Retail Survey, released on Monday. The survey was conducted between February 6 and March 6.

According to the survey, sales volume growth is expected to stabilise during the second quarter of the year.

Read more at FIN24.co.za

SA, Russia explore energy ties

South Africa is considering helping Russian state oil firm Rosneft and gas giant Gazprom in making liquid fuel from natural gas or coal, a cabinet minister said on Monday.

South Africa's Mining and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said that PetroSA officials would hold technical talks on its gas-to-liquid (GTL) technology with the two Russian firms, which are in the early stages of exploring synthetic fuel production.

Read more at FIN24.co.za

Rising exports to boost growth

The competitiveness of South Africa's exports will be improved through continued regulatory reforms and better infrastructure and productivity, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Monday.
This would help to boost economic growth and attract greater investment in the long term.

Read more at FIN24.co.za

Zim collapse accelerating - IMF

Zimbabwe's economic collapse is likely to accelerate with inflation topping 5 000% by year-end as President Robert Mugabe's government loses control of a crisis already rippling across Africa, a senior IMF official said on Sunday.

International Monetary Fund Africa Director Abdoulaye Bio-Tchane said Zimbabwe's government had shown little sign of coming to grips with its mounting economic problems, promising more hardships amid sharply rising political tensions.

Read more at FIN24.co.za