S. African stocks close higher as miners gain

JOHANNESBURG, April 13 (Xinhua) -- The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) closed firmer on Friday as miners climbed.

Mining stocks gained on higher commodity prices, with the dollar little changed against the euro. The gold price had added 0.7 percent to 1,344.20 U.S. dollar.

A softer South African rand towards the close resulted in a sell-off in local banking stocks with property counters also trending weaker.

Naspers dropped below R3,000 following China's March export data that has shown disappointment. Chinese internet group Tencent, of which Naspers owns 31.2 percent, closed weaker in Hong Kong trade, pulled down by Naspers.

The all share index closed 0.15 percent higher at 56,563.17 points and the top 40 gained 0.15 percent. The gold index rose 2.7 percent, resources 2.16 percent, the platinum index 1.16 percent and general retailers 0.87 percent. Banks lost 0.52 percent, industrials 0.49 percent and property 0.37 percent.

The all share index ended the week 1.22 percent higher.

Anglo American jumped 2.91 percent to R290.3 and Gold Fields 4.99 percent R47.8.

FirstRand dropped 1.63 percent to R65.86.

Steinhoff was under selling pressure again amid indications that its selling of Steinhoff Africa Retail (Star) shares to service debt might not be enough to save the company.

The sale of Star shares this week delivered R3.75bn, with overall debt estimated at R150bn. Steinhoff plummeted 11.84 percent to R2.16 but Star gained 1.08 percent to R19.61.

Group Five rose 1.69 percent to R4.2 after reporting on Thursday an interim loss of R727.3m.

Resilient lost 1.32 percent to R63.4, while Hammerson tumbled 8.32 percent to R81.14, after rejecting French group Klépierre's revised-higher takeover bid. Enditem