FOOTNOTES
HILARY JOFFE: Locals help SA weather May madness but global forces have the upper hand now
Some in the market are calling it the "May madness". The month of May saw the largest outflows of foreign capital in a single month on record, as Nedbank CIB pointed out this week. Net outflows amounted to R50bn, of which R30bn was from the bond market and the rest from the equity market. The latest JSE statistics show foreigners were net sellers of South African bonds to the tune of almost R6bn for the year to date; over the matching period last year they were net buyers (of R45bn). Foreign equity purchases are still positive for the year to date but they were less than a fifth of what they were at the same time last year. The drivers of the May madness were global, not local, with investors losing their appetite for emerging market risk in response mainly to dollar strength and US bond yields going over 3%, but also to ructions in Europe and financial woes in Argentina and Turkey. The Institute for International Finance estimated this week that portfolio outflows from emerging mar...
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