Stocks slide as Naspers hit by tech exit, miners drop

South Africa’s main stock index dropped 2.4%, its deepest slump since mid-June, as market behemoth Naspers got caught up in a global rotation out of tech shares and as miners retreated.

Tech investor Naspers fell 3.9%, the most in almost a month, after partly owned Chinese online giant Tencent led declines in Hong Kong stocks and as the Nasdaq 100 sank as much as 5.4% in New York. Prosus NV, which holds Naspers’s 31% Tencent stake, tumbled 4.8%, the most in more than five months.

A rotation away from high-flying tech stocks gained steam on Thursday as investors questioned the sustainability of lofty valuations. Deepening South African power cuts also weighed on sentiment locally, with the state electricity utility already setting a record this year for blackouts, hobbling efforts to revive growth in Africa’s most-industrialised economy.

• Diversified miners BHP, which dropped 4.2%, and Anglo American, down 4.7%, were among the biggest drags on the Johannesburg market amid concerns over the political and logistical hurdles to satisfying the recovery in China’s commodities demand.
• Banking stocks slipped 2.4% to the lowest in more than three months. Standard Bank Group fell 4.1%, Nedbank lost 3.1%, Investec slid 2.4% and FirstRand dropped 2.3%. The sector index is down 45% in 2020, heading for a record annual decline.

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