Market Update – March 2014
Risk off, risk on markets Domestic markets continued to display considerable volatility during March as both global and domestic events impacted on investment sentiment. In the earlier part of the month risk off was largely dictated by indications of a slowdown in Chinese economic growth impacting negatively on South African exports of raw materials. This slowdown has increased speculation in the Chinese financial sector that weakening growth will prompt government policy makers to reconsider their aversion to introducing broad stimulus measures. The Chinese government faces a precarious balancing act of reining in credit expansion that often fuels the risk of loan default, while averting an economic slump that raises the odds of higher unemployment. Read the full article GTC Fund Performances The GTC High Equity Funds (previously Aggressive) have continued to deliver outperformance relative to the inflation adjusted target. Over the... Read More
Market Update – February 2014
Budget 2014/2015 Apart from Minister Pravin Gordhan’s budget speech, February brought with it interesting and counter intuitive developments both in the local equity and bond markets. The 2014 Budget focuses on interventions that are aimed at placing the economy on a new growth trajectory. Government’s primary objective is to raise real economic growth to between 5 and 6 percent per annum. This higher level of economic growth should boost state revenue and enable the government to increase expenditure on improving peoples’ lives by dealing with the high levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality. Read the full article The Rand shock absorber effect U.S.Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen suggested before the Senate banking committee that the pace of the Fed’s economic stimulus plan tapering could be slowed if weakness in the American economy continued. Wall Street rallied as a result with the... Read More
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. Read the full article. 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... Read More
