JOHANNESBURG: South African shares climbed on Monday after heavyweights such as the world's second-largest brewer SABMiller and Africa's top bullion producer AngloGold Ashanti helped prop up an otherwise saggy market.
Johannesburg-listed shares of SAB ended up almost 10 percent at 668.91 rand after a media report that larger rival Anheuser-Busch InBev was lining up financing for a possible $122 billion takeover bid.
The report comes a day after Dutch brewer Heineken said SABMiller had approached it about a potential takeover but that its controlling shareholder intended to keep the company independent.
SABMiller shares rose to their highest ever at 689.07 rand in earlier trade but later pared some of those gains.
The Top-40 index closed at 46,032, up 0.36 percent, while the All-Share rose 0.25 percent to 51,377.
AngloGold shares ended 2 percent higher at 149 rand after a shareholder revolt forced the company to scrap plans to restructure the company and raise $2.1 billion in a rights issue.
Among the Top-40 shares, 29 ended in the red, as anxieties about Chinese growth weighed on resource-heavy emerging markets such as South Africa's.
"If you take out the SABMiller and AngloGold performance, we would probably have been negative," said Reuben Beelders, portfolio manager at Gryphon Asset Management.
Telkom SA fell as investors booked profits after phenomenal growth this year.
The stock has been the best performer on the Johannesburg bourse in 2014 after move than doubling in value, though momentum indicators suggest it has often strayed into overbought territory during its ascent.
Its shares were down 5 percent to 58.25 rand.
Trade at the Johannesburg bourse was delayed by over two hours following a system glitch in the morning but activity picked up and some 170 million shares exchanged hands, according to preliminary statistics. Share prices of 111 companies advanced and those of 173 fell.
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