South African stocks fell on Tuesday, as bluechip heavyweight such as Sasol took a knock from falling global oil prices which tumbled to fresh multi-year lows. Sasol, which sells oil and synthetic fuel, fell 2.7 percent to 436 rand. Around 40 percent of its annual revenue comes from oil.
Brent crude oil fell to a 5-1/2-low as a global supply glut amplified by the downward pressure of its pricing currency, the dollar, outweighed concerns of lost supply in Libya where battling militias have closed ports. Oil markets have been heavily over supplied this year due to increasing output of high quality, light oil from US shale and lower-than-expected consumption as a result of faltering global economic growth and competition from alternative fuels.
Negative sentiment about Greece's future in the euro zone also dragged international equities markets down. On the other hand, concerns about Greece lifted the gold price by more than 1 percent, as the commodity is considered a safe-haven from volatile equity markets. Africa's largest bullion producer AngloGold Ashanti was the biggest gainer in the benchmark Top-40 index, rising 3.09 percent, extending the previous session's strong rally.
Johannesburg's main indices gave up Monday's gains with the Top-40 index falling 1.19 percent to 43,949 while the wider All-share index lost 0.99 percent to 49,755. Trade was thin, with just 57 million shares changing hands with decliners outpacing advancers 168 to 141.
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