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A good start to the new year

24 January 2017

In the first three weeks of 2017, the JSE All Share Index has delivered double the entire 2016 return. This by itself is not really significant; the adage “as goes January, so goes the year” is rarely true. The first three weeks of 2016 saw an 8% loss on the JSE, wiping out more than 2015’s return. Yet returns for the rest of 2016 were positive. What matters more is that the global and local economy are on a much sounder footing as we kick off the New Year, and therefore market sentiment is also more positive.

South Africans can now hold their cash in dollars

24 January 2017

Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), a division of FirstRand Bank Limited, has listed an innovative new product on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), which will enable companies and individuals to hold unlimited quantities of cash in US dollars. US Dollar Custodial Certificates (DCCs), listed on the Exchange Traded Funds sector of the JSE on 24th January, are easily tradable, dollar-denominated investment instruments which have no exchange control implications.

Revisiting the active versus passive debate – Part 1

24 January 2017

Central to the notion of Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) is this belief that markets are efficient and that the average active managers are incapable of outperforming passive managers (Whitehead, 2012: 5).

Sanlam Investments: Market snapshot: December

20 January 2017

Locally, the most anticipated event for December, was the potential downgrade of SA debt by ratings agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P). In the end, S&P kept the foreign currency debt rating at one notch above sub-investment grade, but downgraded the local currency debt to BBB, still two notches above junk. Also during December, Q3 2016 GDP growth data was released: SA eked out only 0.2% of economic growth during the quarter, with mining, finance, real estate, business services and general government services being the main contributors. Despite the low growth, headline consumer inflation accelerated to 6.6% year-on-year up to the end of November.

quick poll

Question

Do you think short-term insurance broking will survive the AI plus humanoid robotics age?

Answer

Human first always Not a chance Possibly maybe Yes, but reimagined

View the Results