Week of aggressive share selling takes foreign outflows to more than R70bn
Foreign investors dumped local shares at a fairly aggressive pace last week, dragging the JSE all share index down a hefty 2%, in a selloff that highlighted the influence of foreign players in the local share market. Foreigners sold a net R17.7bn worth of local shares last week, bringing the total to R72.4bn so far in 2017, according to JSE data. Meganomics economist Colen Garrow attributed the continuing outflows to the prospect of SA’s "suboptimal economic performance". Statistics SA will on Tuesday release the first-quarter GDP figures, which would likely show that the country avoided a technical recession, defined as two successive quarters of economic contraction. The equity sales contrast sharply with net bond flows, with investors chasing the high returns they offer. On Monday morning the yield on the benchmark R186 bond was at 8.44%, compared with the equivalent US 10-year note that stood at 2.17%. Nonresidents bought a net R687m worth of local bonds last week, bringing the ...
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