April 22, 2016

Global – Mario Draghi more QE? Global equities came under considerable pressure in February on the back of continued weakness in the oil price and uncertainty regarding the way forward in terms of U.S. interest rate normalization. In Dollar terms the MSCI World Index delivered a negative return of -0.96% while the MSCI Emerging Markets Index eased -0.15%. Having experienced a difficult month in January, U.S. markets displayed some resilience in February but struggled to make meaningful progress as concerns over the domestic economy were compounded by a further slowing of the global economy Read the full article Domestic – Pravin’s dilemma The release of the 2016/17 budget, concerns over U.S. and global economic growth, together with the possibility of a downgrade of our sovereign debt by the rating agencies all contributed to a month of relentless volatility on the... Read More

Global – Mario Draghi more QE? Global equities came under considerable pressure in February on the back of continued weakness in the oil price and uncertainty regarding the way forward in terms of U.S. interest rate normalization. In Dollar terms the MSCI World Index delivered a negative return of -0.96% while the MSCI Emerging Markets Index eased -0.15%. Having experienced a difficult month in January, U.S. markets displayed some resilience in February but struggled to make meaningful progress as concerns over the domestic economy were compounded by a further slowing of the global economy Read the full article Domestic – Pravin’s dilemma The release of the 2016/17 budget, concerns over U.S. and global economic growth, together with the possibility of a downgrade of our sovereign debt by the rating agencies all contributed to a month of relentless volatility on the... Read More

Global – Year of the Monkey? 2016 saw a turbulent start to the year on the back of extreme volatility in Chinese markets together with renewed downward pressure on the oil price as a result of oversupply. These two factors saw global stockmarkets posting significant negative returns with the MSCI World Index down -6.05% and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index down -6.22% in dollar terms. Read the full article Domestic – Commodities crunch Global emerging markets did not escape the holocaust with a risk-off sentiment prevailing throughout the month. The safe haven status of the gold mining sector being the one exception returning 34.90% for the month. The JSE/ALSI closed down- 3.06% whilst the Top40 declined -3.75%. Not unexpectedly the RES120 lost -4.51% as commodity prices continued their decline. Platinum and Precious Metals recovered some of last month’s losses gaining... Read More