A soft one

Shaun Le Roux from Alphen Asset Management reports that the ALSI ended almost a percent down despite a 6.9% weakening of the rand against the dollar.

The All Bond Index gave up almost 4%. The really interesting phenomenon for March and the year to date has been the relative outperformance by the worst performing sectors of 2004 (the rand hedges) and the poor relative performance by the stars of last year (the local economy plays).

Having shot the lights out in 2004, diversified industrials, retailers, media and banks are negative for the three months to end March 2005!

As we have discussed previously, we believe it is too early to consign local equities to the bin, but the softening of the global appetite for risk currently underway highlights the necessity for having a balanced view of the market.