S. African stocks firmer as ruling party ANC gets new leader

JOHANNESBURG, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) closed higher on Tuesday for the second consecutive session after the country's Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was confirmed as the new leader of the ruling party, ending uncertainties.

The all share was up 0.8 percent to 58,170.44 points at the close, while the blue-chip top 40 edged up 0.47 percent to 51,266.37 points.

Ramaphosa narrowly beat former Africa Union Commission chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to become the leader of the African National Congress (ANC), succeeding President Jacob Zuma, whose tenure has been dogged by controversy. Zuma will remain the president of South Africa until 2019.

At 5:15 p.m. the rand was at R12.73 to the U.S dollar from R12.76, at R15.05 to the euro from R15.03 and at R16.98 to the pound from R17.07.

The other big story was Steinhoff, which was scheduled to meet its creditors after the value of its shares dropped significantly amid an accounting scandal. Steinhoff dropped 17.45 percent to R7.

FirstRand jumped 9.05 percent to R65.31, Standard Bank 6.96 percent to R197.88, Barclays Africa 11.52 percent to R191.26, Nedbank 5.6 percent to R253.43. Enditem