Is it the beginning of the end of the JSE, as we knew it? For stockbrokers tallying up after a day of just R11bn traded, it certainly is beginning to feel that way. Monday was one of the worst days for market activity in recent times and to put R11bn into perspective, that’s the kind of value you normally see traded over Christmas. But averages have dwindled, too: to around R14bn-R15bn, with at least 15% of daily trade down to just one share: Naspers. It would be kind to attribute our slump in volumes to the northern hemisphere summer holidays, or to the fact that we no longer have a company such as SABMiller to draw big interest. (Its successor, AB InBev, does not qualify to be part of the JSE’s top 40 stocks given that it doesn’t have a big enough free float of local investors). The more disturbing truth of the JSE’s paltry volumes is that a dwindling economy, with dwindling prospects, where growth shrinks and companies retrench to survive is not the sort of place to excite the an...
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