South African Stocks Steady as Naspers Gains Offset Weak Banks

(Bloomberg) --

South Africa’s main stock benchmark was little changed in early trading as weakness in banks was offset by gains for index giant Naspers Ltd.

The FTSE/JSE Africa All Shares Index was up 0.1% at 10:11 a.m. in Johannesburg, but has fallen 0.7% in the past seven days, heading for its first weekly loss of November.

• Index for bank stocks retreats for a second day, down 1% as the rand weakens
  • Capitec Bank Holdings Ltd. -1.7%, Standard Bank Group Ltd. -1.4%, FirstRand Ltd. -0.9%, Nedbank Group Ltd. -0.8%
• BHP Group Plc and Anglo American Plc pull the index for mining stocks down 0.1%
  • BHP -0.5%, Anglo American -0.3%
• Tiger Brands Ltd. falls for a third day, down 3.4% to the lowest in more than two weeks after publishing full-year earnings
• Naspers gains 1.9% to provide the biggest boost to the benchmark as partly owned Tencent Holdings Ltd. recovers in Hong Kong; Naspers holds a 31% stake in the tech giant, through its subsidiary Prosus NV, which is up 1.4%
• Foreigners were net sellers of South African stocks for a fourth day Thursday, disposing of 156 million rand worth of shares, according to exchange operator JSE Ltd.

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