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Shares up on rand sell-off to overseas earners

Johannesburg - South African stocks rose 0.84% on Thursday as the rand's fall to its weakest in nearly five years boosted media firm Naspers, furniture maker Steinhoff and other companies with overseas operations.

Shares of drug maker Adcock Ingram edged up in active trade, finishing at R70.75, just above the offer price of R70 from suitor Bidvest.

Adcock's top shareholder, the state pension fund, will not sell its stake to Bidvest for R70, a source familiar with the fund's thinking said, a setback to the local conglomerate's attempt to block a Chilean bid for the company.

The benchmark Top-40 index advanced 0.84% to 39,587.66.

The broad All-Share index gained 0.71% to 44,297.66.

"The rand is helping the local market," said Oliver Russell, a dealer at brokerage Global Trader.

The rand fell to 10.5395 to the dollar, its weakest since March 2009 after it broke through key technical levels.

Naspers, a media and e-commerce firm with stakes in China's biggest Internet firm and operations is Brazil, eastern Europe and other emerging markets, rose 3.6% to 989.71 rand. A weaker rand lifts earnings when profits from abroad are brought home.

Steinhoff, a furniture maker and retailer with extensive operations in Europe, gained 2% to R40.

Trade was light, with just 152 million shares changing hands according to preliminary bourse data.

Advancers outnumbered decliners, 177 to 127, with 53 shares unchanged from the previous close.


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Rand - Dollar
18.89
+0.3%
Rand - Pound
23.87
+0.1%
Rand - Euro
20.39
+0.2%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.32
+0.1%
Rand - Yen
0.12
+0.2%
Platinum
908.05
0.0%
Palladium
1,014.94
0.0%
Gold
2,232.75
-0.0%
Silver
24.95
-0.1%
Brent-ruolie
87.00
+1.8%
Top 40
68,346
0.0%
All Share
74,536
0.0%
Resource 10
57,251
0.0%
Industrial 25
103,936
0.0%
Financial 15
16,502
0.0%
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