GTC Trendline – September 2014
The ghost of irrational exuberance?
Global
Perhaps the ghost of irrational exuberance came back to haunt some world stock markets during the third quarter of 2014. The quarter has seen considerable volatility in world markets heralded by a rampant dollar on the back of strong economic growth, a weaker Euro on the back of renewed tensions in the Russia/Ukraine standoff, concerns over the sustainability of economic growth in China and a downgrading of Emerging Markets on concerns over commodity pricing.
Who put the lights out?
Domestic
Despite disappointing economic data and ongoing labour unrest, the local stock market continued its meteoric
rise over the quarter with the FTSE/JSE ALSI reaching
an all-time high on the 29th July of 52,323. This stellar performance was largely influenced by carry trades in which foreign investors are able to source low cost liquidity and seek yield pick-up in other markets. However as the quarter progressed and more sombre economic data became available a greater degree of sanity prevailed with the ALSI closing down at 49,336 at the end of September.
GTC is growing – and rebranding
GTC’s integration of two stockbroking and derivatives trading businesses, Brockhouse Cooper and Bolus & Bolus into the GTC group has recently been communicated in a letter to clients. GTC is well into a long-term strategy of expanding our business both through acquisitive and organic growth.
GTC Fund Performances
The GTC Fixed Income Fund has delivered outperformance against the Cash (SteFI) and Bond (ALBI 1-3 year) benchmarks over all periods. Inflation eased to 6.3% on the back of a decline in food prices.
