Destiny Investments: A year in review 2017

Just like the yo-yo, a toy every generation has had the pleasure and frustration of experiencing, the local capital markets had their fair share of ups and downs in 2017 showing volatility in equities, bonds, commodities and of course, the unpredictable Rand.

LOCAL EQUITY MARKET

Looking at the All Share Index (ALSI) growth of 21%, one would say that the JSE had a good year. However, the JSE’s leading indices are dominated heavily by the e-commerce conglomerate Naspers, commodity stocks such as Anglo American and BHP Billiton as well as the large financial services counters. Due to this concentration there is no longer a one-fits-all benchmark that provides a realistic reflection of the broader market.

In contrast to the ALSI, the winners and losers scorecard for the year was not as flattering, indicating that 56% of JSE shares were “losers”: