South African stocks drop more than 2 pct

JOHANNESBURG, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) closed more than 2 percent weaker on Tuesday despite a higher private sector credit growth reported by the central bank.

The South African Reserve Bank reported that private sector credit extension grew 6.72 percent to R3.5-trillion in December, an acceleration from November's 6.48 percent annual growth.

Capitec shares dropped 24 percent at one stage, equating to about R26bn of the unsecured lender's market value, after Viceroy Research labelled the bank a "loan shark with massively understated defaults."

Capitec denied the claim. It said in a press statement that it was studying the report, but on the face of it, the content was inaccurate.

The all share index was off 2.07 percent to 59,546.23 points by close of trading, while the blue- chip top 40 was down 2.16 percent.

Naspers dropped 5.1 percent to R3,435.25 amid profit taking.

BHP slipped 1.78 percent to R265.4, Anglo American 2.28 percent to R290.83 and Sasol 4.39 percent to R436.

AngloGold Ashanti slumped 5.1 percent to R130.72, Gold Fields fell 5.3 percent to R50.53 and Impala Platinum 1.72 percent to R34.3.

FirstRand eased 2.6 percent to R65.45, Barclays Africa 1.73 percent to R172.95 and Nedbank 3.18 percent to R259.03.

Discovery Holdings lost 2.81 percent to R169.99, Rand Merchant Holdings 2.13 percent to R44.50 and MMI 1.99 percent to R22.64.

Bidcorp fell 2.8 percent to R270, AVI 2.45 to R106.91 and Pioneer Foods 2.88 percent to R130.26.

Steinhoff was down 11.11 percent to R6.8 and Woolworths 1.82 percent to R65.16. Enditem