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Johannesburg - South African stocks slid on Friday in line with equities markets elsewhere as investors fretted about the prospect of a global economic slowdown, but analysts said Johannesburg could rally next week on technical factors.
Dim global growth prospects mean a grim outlook for commodity prices with the likes of petrochemicals giant Sasol falling 3.9% and Impala Platinum shedding 4.9% in a broad-based resource sell off.
Among blue chips, Africa's top bullion producer AngloGold Ashanti was the biggest decliner, skidding 5.6% to R120.70, its lowest level in 10 months.
Bucking the downward trend of its industry peers, iron ore producer Assore leapt 5% to R225.91 in a technical rebound after charts suggested it had strayed deeply into oversold territory.
It is still down about 51% from its year peak of over R462 reached in March as it has steadily lost ground in the face of mounting concerns about Chinese growth, which has hit iron ore prices.
The overall Johannesburg market could follow Assore in a technical upswing, with the 14-day RSI - a momentum indicator tracked by some chartists - showing the main indices are oversold and due for a bump.
“Many of the stocks are in oversold territory based on technicals. RSI's and other momentum have broken lower today, in some cases significantly," said Lloyd Priestman, a market analyst at asset manager Caleo Capital.
"We should see some short-term support from these levels as medium to longer term investors look for buying opportunities, given the recent sell off,” he said.
The benchmark Top-40 index slid 2.33% to 41 912 while the wider All-share index stumbled 2.16% to 47 092.
