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Worst Third Quarter Since 2011 Halts South Africa Stocks’ Ascent

  • Trade war, weak local economy end positive run for market
  • Naspers’s listing of Prosus was blockbuster event of quarter
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange As Battered Rand Plunges
Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg

Worries about global growth, the prolonged trade war and a moribund local economy have stopped South African stocks in their tracks.

After posting back-to-back quarterly gains, a feat not achieved since 2017, Johannesburg’s benchmark index is down 5% since the end of June as of Friday. That leaves it set for the worst third-quarter performance in nine years.