Vodacom is listed despite protest

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South Africa's largest mobile phone firm, Vodacom, has made its debut on the Johannesburg stock market.

It came a day after a court threw out an attempt by trade union federation Cosatu to block the listing.

The shares opened at 59.50 rand each ($6.90; £4.51) and climbed to 63.10 rand, before dropping back to 59.30.

The listing is part of a wider deal that increases UK firm Vodafone's stake in the company from 50% to 65%, at a cost of 22.5bn rand (£1.4bn; $2.1bn).

Vodafone bought the 15% stake from government-controlled Telkom, which has now offered the remaining 35% of its shares to investors.

Half of the Telkom shares on the market are being freely traded and the other portion is being held by fund managers.

Political symbol

The BBC's Karen Allen in Johannesburg says the Vodacom sell-off had become a symbol of the political challenges faced by President Jacob Zuma, whose allies in the trade unions and the Communist Party had opposed the deal.

Cosatu had objected to a foreign firm taking a majority stake in one of the country's biggest companies and had argued that jobs would be at risk.

But after just two weeks in power and with a new finance minister at the helm, Mr Zuma is eager not to frighten off international investors, our correspondent says.

Vodacom runs mobile networks in five African countries.

Russell Loubser of the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) said it was a "highly respected company" for investors to add to their portfolios.