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SA stocks end flat, African Bank plunges

Johannesburg - South African stocks ended virtually unchanged on Wednesday as investors juggled concerns about the health of the global economy with views that a sharp sell-off in recent days has made some shares look like bargains.

African Bank Investments topped the decliners' list on the exchange as the nation's biggest unsecured loans lender warned of a sharp fall in half profits.

Shares in the company, whose loans rely solely on a customer's promise to back it back, dropped 4.77% to R10.59.

Overall, investors chased after bargains following five straight sessions of sharp falls but the underlying mood remained largely bearish.

"The general sentiment is still very negative and investors are still quite concerned about emerging markets and that's not good news for us," said Abri du Plessis, chief investment officer at Gryphon Asset Management in Cape Town.

"We've gone and hiked interest rates in the hope that will stabilise the rand, but the only thing I can see that is going to do is kill the economy even further."

The benchmark JSE Top-40 index inched up 0.06% to 39 967.59 and the broader All-share index edged up by a similar margin to 44 477.18.

Both indices have fallen about 6% in the past seven sessions, hitting the oversold lines on technical charts such as the relative strength index, or RSI.

Vodacom was down 1.9% at R117.42 after the mobile phone operator said mobile phone reductions could cost it R1bn in its 2015 fiscal year.

Also in the news, Sappi dropped 2.2% to 34.50 after the paper maker posted a one-third drop in quarterly profit.

Gainers included Steinhoff International, up 2.6% at R45.98, recouping about 5% losses suffered in the past nine sessions.

Trade was active with more than 160 million shares changing hands. Advancers outnumbered decliners 174 to 136 while 49 stocks were unchanged.
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Rand - Dollar
19.00
-0.5%
Rand - Pound
23.95
-0.2%
Rand - Euro
20.50
-0.2%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.34
+0.1%
Rand - Yen
0.13
-0.5%
Platinum
895.30
-0.2%
Palladium
991.47
-1.0%
Gold
2,194.13
-0.0%
Silver
24.44
-0.8%
Brent Crude
86.09
-0.2%
Top 40
67,910
+0.3%
All Share
74,134
+0.3%
Resource 10
56,271
+1.1%
Industrial 25
103,558
+0.3%
Financial 15
16,498
-0.2%
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