CHRIS GILMOUR: Demise of SA widows and orphans stocks drives investors offshore

Widows and orphans stocks have largely disappeared from the SA investment landscape, decimated by mergers, acquisitions, exceptionally poor management decisions and long-term economic blight.

A classical quality of this stock category is the regular and reliable provision of a decent dividend, combined with a slow and steady rise in market value over the long term. They tend to be fairly boring stocks that are often overlooked by media hype.