JOHANNESBURG: South African stocks ticked higher on Wednesday as a weaker rand lifted companies with overseas businesses, such as telecoms operator MTN and e-commerce firm Naspers.
Shares in Sasol slumped by 3 percent as investors continued to hammer the petrochemicals company on the weaker oil price, which has fallen nearly 40 percent since June.
"You are seeing that investors are concerned about the longer term outlook for oil," said Mohammed Nalla, head of strategic research at Nedbank Capital.
Oil has been hit since the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said last week it would not lower output despite an oversupply.
MTN, Africa's dominant telecoms operator, rose by almost 3 percent to 220.40 rand. Shares of Naspers, the continent's largest company by market value, advanced by 2 percent to 1,511 rand.
Both companies, which make at least half of their earnings overseas, were helped by a rand that fell by almost 1 percent. Insurer Sanlam was the biggest loser on the benchmark Top-40 index, falling by 4.5 percent to 67.82 rand after it reported slower growth compared to last year.
The Top-40 ended up 0.58 percent at 44,230, while the broader All-Share index rose 0.54 percent to 49,857.
About 217 million shares changed hands, according to preliminary bourse data, well above last year's daily average of 176 million shares.
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