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Johannesburg - SA stocks ended a tad stronger on Monday after being in the red for most of the session, with Kumba Iron Ore adding 2.7% ahead of first-half earnings on Tuesday.
Feeble earnings by consumer foods maker Tiger Brands [JSE:TBS], auto dealer and lower output by Harmony Gold [JSE:HAR] had hurt sentiment earlier in the session.
Tiger Brands shares closed 5.2% lower, its worst daily drop since July 2013, while Harmony's stock lost 2.7% after quarterly production fell 10%.
Kumba [JSE:KIO] had flagged that total production for the three months to end-December increased by 10% compared with a year earlier, while total export sales also increased by 23%.
Africa's biggest telecoms operator MTN [JSE:MTN] was the biggest gainer after adding nearly 3%.
About half of the Top-40 companies gained in late trade, but investors punished the rest.
"Some profit taking is coming here and you can definitely see the focus has been on the sell side," said Ryan Woods, a trader at Independent Securities, adding that the market was closely watching bigger markets like China for direction.
"We are of the opinion here that this place is due for a pull back of sorts. The market is looking somewhat expensive so on that premise we haven't been very active on the buy side."
Johannesburg's Top-40 index closed up 0.3% at 45 875 and the All-share added 0.2% to 52 105.
Activity was relatively slow with about 176 million shares traded compared to last year's daily average of 185 million shares, and 185 million companies declined while another 131 advanced.
