S.Africa bank stocks hit, but retailers up again

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa stocks ended little changed on Friday, as a another rise by retailers such as market favourite Woolworths was offset by a sharp decline in banks.

Societe Generale started coverage of South African lenders, cautioning they could face near-term challenges that may cut earnings. The brokerage rated Absa and FirstRand a "sell" while Nedbank and Standard Bank were rated "hold".

"There's a lot of consolidation across the market," said Travis Robson, a trader at PSG Securities. "It's profit-taking and low volumes on the back of the U.S. market."

The U.S. equity market was closed on Thursday to mark the Thanksgiving holiday. Trade will end early on Friday.

Investors are nervously watching the outcome of talks by the European Union over fresh aid cash for Greece, Robson said.

"Key to the market is what will happen with the European sovereign debt and seeing what happens over the weekend with regards to Greece," Robson said.

Both the Top-40 and All-Share indices edged up 0.06 percent to 33,634.44 and 37,865.59 respectively. They had rallied to life-time highs in the previous session.

Absa Group, South Africa's third-largest bank by value, was rated as the least preferred among the four lenders rated by SocGen. Its shares fell the most, by 2 percent to 139.10 rand.

Nedbank, the smallest of the four, was rated as the most preferred but its shares still fell 1.6 percent to 179.18 rand.

Harmony Gold lost only 0.4 percent to 70.90 rand despite the killing of two of its miners in clashes between rival unions on Thursday. South Africa's third-largest bullion producer said the violence did not affect operations at its Kusasalethu mine.

Retailers, among the best performing stocks in Johannesburg this year, continued their surge.

Shares of Woolworths, a retailer of food and clothing, gained 1.8 percent to 69.54 rand.

SABMiller continued to ride the momentum created by Thursday's announcement of a 12 percent rise in first-half earnings. Several ratings upgrades on Friday also lifted the brewer's stock.

Johannesburg-listed shares of the company rose 1.5 percent.

A total 179 million shares worth about 8 billion rand were traded from a daily average of about 13 billion.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/africa-bank-stocks-hit-retailers-again-161337580--finance.html

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