Government tender aims at reviving waning pharmaceuticals production sector.

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ALEC HOGG: Hello, good evening and welcome to the SAfm Market Update with Moneyweb. I'm Alec Hogg.
    We have a trio of beauts for you tonight. We'll be hearing from long-time gold bull Paul Walker why he’s now predicting that the gold price could fall below $1 000/oz. It's $1 675 today. That level was last seen in 2009.
    We'll also ask South Africa’s newly crowned Economist of the Year for his insight into how he sees the year ahead.
    And an interview with the World Economic Forum’s managing director on the improving global confidence outlook.
    First, here’s Moneyweb’s Gugulethu Mfuphi with the business news headlines.

GUGULETHU MFUPHI: Thank you, Alec. Good evening.
    South Africa’s government pension fund could invest as much as R26bn in African private equity. The Public Investment Corporation, which manages more than R1trn on behalf of civil servants, is currently looking for potential private equity partners to assist it to invest on the rest of the continent.
    Government has put in place measures aimed at reviving the waning pharmaceuticals production sector. This includes the issuing of a tender valued at R2.5bn for two years of local procurement of oral pharmaceuticals.
    And the Brics group of emerging market countries is likely to make a joint decision on whom to support for the World Bank presidency.
    Turning to the markets now, the JSE all-share index closed down by 0.75%, at  33 705points.
   The rand is trading at R7.94/dollar, R12.54/pound and R10.38/euro.
    Gold is trading at $1 667/oz, and a barrel of crude costs $121.

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