Asian Currencies: Won Gains From Two-Week Low on Exports, Peso Advances

(Bloomberg) -- South Korea's won strengthened the most in four weeks on speculation exporters bought the currency near a two-week low.

Earnings for Korean manufacturers increase in local- currency terms when they convert profit as the won drops. Stocks rose to near a record high, prompting inflows from overseas, which encouraged exporters to buy won. Businesses were more optimistic about the economic outlook for May, partly because of rising exports, a survey by the Federation of Korean Industries showed.


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PRESS DIGEST - New York Times business news - May 3

(Reuters) - * Sophisticated Internet users have banded together over the last two days to publish and widely distribute a secret code used by the technology and movie industries to prevent piracy of high-definition movies.

* The Internal Revenue Service is curtailing audits of many people who use offshore tax havens, even when agents see signs of tax evasion, because agents fear they cannot meet a three-year deadline for finishing an examination, Congressional investigators have found.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

Oil steady after mixed US inventory picture

(Reuters) - Oil prices clawed back up on Thursday after U.S. government data showed a build in crude but a further fall in gasoline stocks ahead of peak summer demand.

London Brent crude, currently seen as more representative of global oil prices than U.S. crude, gained 18 cents to $66.43 a barrel by 0357 GMT, after dropping 75 cents on Wednesday. U.S. crude rose 4 cents to $63.72, after a 72-cent drop a day earlier.


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Investec year EPS to be 24-29 pct up on prior year

(Reuters) - South African investment banking and asset management group Investec Plc said on Thursday earnings per share for the year to end-March was likely to be 24 to 29 percent higher than the year before.

"The group has experienced a strong performance from the majority of its business units," Investec said in a trading statement.


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Sasol hedges 45,000 bpd for '08 financial year

(Reuters) - South Africa's Sasol, the world's top coal-to-liquids maker, will hedge 45,000 barrels of oil per day or 30 percent of its synthetic fuels production for its 2008 financial year, the company said on Thursday.

Under the hedge, Sasol has a floor price of $62.40 per barrel, based on monthly average dated Brent crude oil prices, and will forego the upside on the hedged volumes should the monthly average dated Brent price exceed $76.80 per barrel.


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Earnings boost FTSE; break-up report boosts Pru

(Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 share index rose early on Thursday as solid corporate results boosted Royal Dutch Shell and Unilever and Prudential gained after a newspaper reported talk of a break-up.

At 0727 GMT the FTSE 100 was up 36.3 points, or 0.56 percent at 6,521.7, after gaining 1 percent in the previous session. European shares also nudged higher.


Read more at Reuters Africa

S.Africa house price growth continues to slow - survey

(Reuters) - South Africa residential house price growth continued to slow in April, curbed by higher interest rates and rising debt, but declining supply should prop up the market, a survey showed on Thursday.

The Standard Bank monthly property gauge showed annualised house price growth at 7.4 percent last month, down from 8.4 percent growth in March.


Read more at Reuters Africa