Battered JSE braced for another tough year
Over the past four years, the JSE has delivered a "paltry" 4.4% return - no more than 1% a year
While global markets have staged a fightback over the past week, it has not been enough to escape the worst annual performance for stocks since the global recession a decade ago. The JSE all share index declined more than 13% in 2018 as investors fretted over higher US interest rates, trade tensions between the world's two largest economies - the US and China - and slower global growth. In 2008, the year US investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed amid a credit squeeze that snowballed into recession, the Alsi plunged 27%. Over the past four years, the JSE has delivered a "paltry" 4.4% return - no more than 1% a year, said Sasfin Wealth deputy chair David Shapiro. Some of the biggest disappointments for the year have been Aspen Pharmacare, Naspers, British American Tobacco (BAT) and Group Five, which all had challenges. The performance of the JSE in 2018 reflected a difficult environment, marked by low growth, regulatory changes and policy uncertainty. Aspen's share price plunged mo...
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