COMPANY COMMENT
Banks index hat-trick up in the air for 2018
But banks are unlikely to run hard for yet another year
Whether the JSE’s banks index will score a hat-trick in 2018 and hand investors the outperformance it has, against all odds, delivered the previous two years is anyone’s guess.While the index is up a modest 2.8% in 2018, consider that it was down about 12% over the same period in 2017 yet went on to end the year 24% higher. This compared with a 15.4% gain in the JSE’s all share index (Alsi). Banks staged a spectacular run at the eleventh hour, in response to Cyril Ramaphosa’s victory in the ANC’s nail-biting election battle. Still, 2017 was a year in which there were attempts at meddling with the Reserve Bank’s mandate and SA lost its investment-grade credit rating, along with a well-respected finance minister — hardly the best environment for banks. Things were looking similarly dire for the country’s largest lenders at the beginning of 2016. They began the year in the doldrums, hammered by the abrupt firing of finance minister Nhlanhla Nene in December 2015. Still, as the Alsi’s g...
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