Naspers rebound pushes South African bourse higher

JOHANNESBURG, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- Internet and media group Naspers' rebound pushed the Johannesburg stock exchange (JSE) higher on Monday.

Naspers rose following a negative close last week as Chinese internet company Tencent rallied 2 percent on the Hang Seng. Naspers owns 34.4 percent of Tencent. Naspers lost 6.1 percent last week, and on Monday its share added 2.78 percent to R3,629.97.

The South African rand traded R13.61 to the U.S. dollar following news that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was winning nominations in several provinces ahead of the ANC elective conference in two weeks. Ramaphosa and ANC MP Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma are frontrunners to succeed President Jacob Zuma, whose term as party leader comes to an end. But Zuma will remain the president of South Africa until 2019.

The all share index closed 0.27 percent higher at 59,607.34 points and the benchmark top 40 added 0.36 percent to 53,076.58 points. Resources lost 0.57 percent, platinums 3.77 percent, and the gold index 3.39 percent. But industrials gained 0.6 percent. Banks added 0.38 percent, food and drug retailers 0.62 percent.

Anglo American advanced 0.57 percent to settle at R255.5.

Global resources company BHP was up 0.86 percent to R252.50, Kumba Iron Ore 1.81 percent to R330.98 and Assore 4.75 percent to R303.

But AngloGold Ashanti shed 3.59 percent to R134.56, Gold Fields 2.38 percent to R56.26 and Impala 7.49 percent to R36.31.

FirstRand gained 0.71 percent to R57 and Standard bank 0.9 percent to R177.03.

Richemont added only 0.02 percent to R119 and British American Tobacco tumbled 0.27 percent to R875.94.

Steinhoff dropped 9.96 percent to R50.25. Marketers are waiting for the release of its audited results on Wednesday. Enditem