JOHANNESBURG, Sept 11 (Reuters) - South Africa's randweakened on Wednesday after data showing business confidence inthe country has collapsed, undermining a push by President CyrilRamaphosa to kick-start growth after a decade of stagnation.
Stocks rose, despite a plunge is bourse heavyweight NaspersLtd, as the prospect of increased stimulus in majoreconomies underpinned risk-on buying in emerging markets.
At 1540 GMT the rand was 0.79% weaker at 14.7525per dollar, giving up some of its recent gains spurred bybetter-than-expected second-quarter economic growth data andcomments by ratings firm Moody's that a downgrade tosub-investment was unlikely in the near term.
The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry's monthlybusiness confidence index fell to its lowest level in 34 yearsin August, hurt by a sharp drop in export volumes and a weakercurrency, the business body said.
On the other hand, the Rand Merchant Bank businessconfidence index compiled by the Bureau for Economic Researchplunged to a 20-year low in the third quarter.
"With confidence in all sectors net negative, there isclearly no prospect of a sustained recovery in fixed investmentspending or job creation in the short to medium term," ElizeKruger at NKC African Economics said in a note.
"Time is running out for the economy, as businesses thathave lost hope will soon look for opportunities elsewhere, tothe detriment of the South African economy."
On the bourse, the Johannesburg All-Share Index wasup 1.64% to 56,243 points, while the benchmark top-40 indexgained 1.77% to 50,359 points.
Naspers tumbled 30% to 2,465 rand, following the marketdebut of its spin-off Prosus in Amsterdam, actingsimilar to a share that has gone ex-dividend.
Prosus comprises Naspers' global empire of consumer internetassets, with the jewel in the crown a 31% stake in Chinese techtitan Tencent Holdings Ltd.
Naspers is retaining a controlling 75% stake in Prosus. TheTencent stake has been worth more than Naspers itself for yearsand dominated the $103 billion group's finances. One motivationfor spinning off Prosus was to narrow that value gap.
In fixed income, the yield on the benchmark paper due in2026 was up 3 basis points to 8.16%.(Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Onke Ngcuka; Editingby Lisa Shumaker)