Gold was higher in choppy and highly liquid trade on Wednesday afternoon amid a firmer euro. At 2.46pm, gold was quoted at $544,20 a troy ounce, up $1/oz from its previous close. "It has been quite a choppy and volatile day. We’ve seen extremely high levels of liquidity," a Johannesburg-based trader said.

Shares in MTN Group extended their winning streak to reach a fresh all-time high of R62,50 in early trade on Thursday on the news that the JSE-listed cellular operator is part of the consortium vying for Egypt’s third mobile-network licence that would compete with Cairo-listed Vodafone Egypt and Orasscom.

Following the licensing of the second national operator to compete with Telkom, South Africa is finally set for a duopoly of fixed line operators, possibly from 2006, it was announced on Friday. Although the SNO licence issued by the Independent Communications Authority (Icasa) entitled the new player to compete with Telkom on the public switched telecommunications service front, the unbundling of the local loop has been delayed until further notice.

Listed cellphone company MTN Group on Wednesday reported a 30,8% rise in adjusted headline earnings per share to 222,5 cents for the six month period ended September 30, versus 170,1 cents reported last year. In South Africa, MTN’s customer base grew by 12% to 8,9-million.

London-headquartered Vodafone on Thursday purchased 1,03% in VenFin’s issued share capital for R213,9-million in open-market transactions, the cellular giant disclosed to the JSE on Friday. Vodafone acquired 4,6-million VenFin shares in 18 deals for amounts ranging from R44,75 to R46,60 per share.

London-headquartered Vodafone’s offer to increase its stake from 35% to 50% in local mobile network Vodacom was on Thursday hailed as a vote of confidence in South Africa’s political landscape and economic prospects. Vodafone has offered to acquire VenFin’s 15% holding in Vodacom for an estimated R16-billion.

Shares in South African telecommunications companies MTN Group, Telkom and investments holdings company VenFin rallied to all-time highs on Wednesday. An equities dealer said these stocks were under pressure lately due to cellular operators’ announcements of reduced tariffs, but these cost-cutting initiatives have proved benign.