- 15 hours ago
- 1 min read
March proved to be a tough month for South African markets, bringing an abrupt end to what had been a strong run for local equities. The FTSE/JSE Capped All Share Index fell by 10.5% over the month, with a late 1.6% rebound on the final trading day helping to avoid what could have been the worst monthly decline since the global financial crisis. A large part of the weakness came from the precious metals sector, which had previously been a major driver of performance. Gold and platinum miners were hit particularly hard, declining by 18% and 25% respectively. This mirrored sharp drops in the underlying commodity prices - gold fell 12% during the month (at one point down nearly 25% before recovering), while platinum declined 18%, giving back some of its recent strong gains.
The pressure extended beyond equities. The local bond market also experienced as significant sell-off, with the All Bond Index falling 7% - its second-worst month in 25years. This was driven by a sharp increase in government borrowing costs, with the10-year bond yield rising to 9.3%.
