South African stocks snapped a two-day losing streak on Friday as shares in cement maker PPC Ltd rose when the firm announced the end of merger talks with a rival firm. Shares South Africa's biggest cement maker rose 5.7 percent after the firm which began talks with unlisted rival Afrisam Group last year cancelled the negotiations after saying it was not satisfied with the merits of the merger.
"This is positive for the company," said Rabi Thithi, a trader at Avior Research. "Had PPC and Afrisam merged, PPC would have had additional debt and would have likely had to sell some assets due to duplication or for competition purposes."
The benchmark Top-40 index rose 0.47 percent to 45,678 while the All-share index ended 0.4 percent higher at 51,810. Small-cap asset manager Purple Capital jumped 10.8 percent after it said full-year earnings rocketed 94 percent after it recorded more customers. On the flipside, platinum firm Wesizwe fell 7.9 percent, recovering from an intra-day decline of 20 percent, after saying it expected its full-year loss to widen. It's flagship mine will start producing in 2017.
Shares in construction firm Basil Read fell as much as 3 percent after reporting a full-year loss but recovered to close unchanged.
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