Investment Market Update
APRIL 2023
What has been happening in local & global markets in the month of April
KEY NUMBERS
4.50%
Chinese economy growth in Q1
$320 Billion
The collective market value gained by Big Tech in April
1%
Latest SA month on month CPI print
LOCAL MARKET
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April was a quieter month than March from a news flow and market activity perspective and markets generally drifted upwards over the month.
Locally SA equities performed well, as platinum and gold stocks bolstered the resources sector. Financials and industrials also showed healthy gains over the month.
Listed property was the best performing asset class in rands, while SA bonds was the worst performing as yields continued to rise resulting in capital losses for the asset class. High inflation and poor economic growth remain a concern for longer duration assets in South Africa.
Offshore asset classes benefitted from a weaker rand and reasonable performance in hard currency.
SMARTIE BOX IN RANDS:
GLOBAL MARKETS
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Lower energy prices resulted in falling inflation globally, although perhaps not as much as expected and there were indications that inflation may continue to be a bit ‘stickier’ at these elevated levels for some time.
Global equity markets ended April in positive territory. The US economy slowed significantly in the first quarter to an annualized growth rate of 1.1%, well below the expected 2.0%. However, investors continue to interpret weaker economic data as good news for financial markets. The slight optimism from markets on interest rates, as well as a slew of positive results from big tech companies helped drive equity markets to their best levels in almost a year.
Economic data pointed to underlying strength globally, although this masked an emerging divergence between the strength in services sectors and weakness in manufacturing sectors.
MOVEMENTS
- The JSE All Share Index gained last month (up 3.4%).
- Resources (up 4.0%) ended the month well into positive territory, with Industrials (up 3.1%) and Financials (up 3.0%) following closely behind.
- Small-caps (up 2.0%), Mid-caps (up 3.8%) and Large-caps (up 3.5%) boasted healthy growth in April.
- The S&P SA REIT sector (up 3.3%) and the SA Listed Property sector (up 5.4%) rocketed higher, making up for the lost ground in recent months.
- SA Nominal Bonds (down 1.2%) dropped, while Inflation Linked Bonds (up 0.5%) ended the month higher due to suprising inflation numbers.
- Developed Market Equities outperformed their Emerging Market peers in US Dollar terms, with the MSCI World Index up 1.8% and the MSCI Emerging Market Index down 1.1%.
- The Rand depreciated against the major currencies; relative to the US Dollar (Rand depreciated 3.0%), the Euro (Rand depreciated 4.5%) and the Pound Sterling (Rand depreciated 4.5%).
- The commodities sector had a mostly positive month, with Platinum (up 9.5%) jumping higher and Gold (up 1.1%) posting strong gains while Brent Crude (down 0.3%) fell for a fourth straight month.
MONTHLY RETURNS:
