According to investment analyst Nadim Mohamed, who is a partner at First Avenue Investment Management, the year 2013 will probably be a more challenging year for two of South Africa's operators - MTN and Vodacom - even though they have "good leadership and assets."

On Thursday, oil prices in the US witnessed a drop because of the market's apparent fears about the country's `fiscal cliff' crisis which is threatening to pull the economy back to recession for the biggest crude oil consumer in the world.

In a human rights complaint filed with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, a Chinese miner - named Huizhi Li - has said that the protests which the United Steelworkers Union has launched over the foreign employees' issue have led to a situation where Chinese workers will be seen with contempt.

After running the Chinese-built FAW trucks on the South African highways for the last nearly twenty years, the FAW Group has recently revealed that it is now expanding its presence in the country, with the launch of FAW passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCVs).

Thursday observed a rise in the US dollar against the Japanese yen, while it slipped down against the euro.

The US dollar rose from ¥83.26 to ¥83.64 against the yen. The losses to yen are supposed to be due to the Federal Reserve's decision to expand monetary stimulus. It said that it would be buying additional ling-maturity securities worth $45 billion.

After going through brainstorming discussions, eurozone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund decided to provide 44bn euros to Greece. The amount, which yet has to be received, is said to be the latest tranche in the bailout funds that are vital to run the economy.

Japan's currency has fallen down by 0.4% to record lowest value in the eight months at 82.87 per dollar. Australian dollar rose to highest in the last two months while the currency of South Korea reached a 15 month high on the day.

A new bill has been formed by the minister of jobs and the minister of state for research and innovation, which they believe will generate good jobs in near future with good ideas.