South Africa's rand firmed on Friday after President Cyril Ramaphosa set out brief plans to stimulate economic growth during his state of the nation address, although his speech was short on specifics and timeframes.

At 1515 GMT the rand was 0.49% stronger at 14.8800 per dollar. Stocks closed flat, with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange's Top-40 index 0.01% up to 52,049.98 points and the broader all-share index up 0.05% at 57,861 points.

The biggest winner on the blue-chip index was miner Sibanye-Stillwater, which closed 6.9% higher after flagging that its full-year headline loss was set to shrink, with adjusted EBITDA growing 79% year-on-year. In fixed income, the yield on benchmark 2030 paper was down 3 basis point to 8.865%.