South African stocks ended a volatile week, punctuated by fears about China-led global economic slowdown, with their biggest weekly gain in four months. The equity market kicked off the week with hefty losses, tracking similar drops elsewhere in the world on worries about China, before staging a recovery that helped it notch up the biggest weekly gain since April.
But both indices, down about 5 percent so far this month, remained on track for their biggest monthly decline in more than two years. "I don't think concerns about growth in China are overstated but I think the market over-reacted," said Desmond Reilly, a portfolio manager at PSG Konsult. "There's still a bit of volatility because the market is still little bit unsure."
The stock market volatility index, commonly known as the "fear index", has eased slightly but it is still around its highest level since February last year. Sasol, the world's biggest maker of motor fuel from coal and gas, featured on the gainers' list as the oil price bounced from its weakest level in more than six years. Shares in the company, which sells its fuel at the same prices as companies that import and refine crude, climbed 7.4 percent to 431.79 rand. The blue-chip JSE Top-40 index gained 1.74 percent to 44,383, bringing gains so far this week to just over 2 percent. The All-share index, the broadest measure of the South African stock market performance, was up 1.71 percent at 49,966.