First published by Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper
As the world celebrated the news in November of the development of a number of vaccines for Covid-19, it was encouraging to see how investor sentiment improved as a consequence. But it was the election of Joe Biden as the next US President, that lit a spark under the prices of riskier assets around the globe. Local multi-asset portfolios, which have been overweight in undervalued assets like SA equities and bonds since April, were in the perfect position to take advantage of this improvement in growth prospects.
The JSE All Share Index was testing the 60 000 mark earlier this month after hitting rock bottom in March this year, falling under the 40 000 level. Whether this rally will continue into 2021, is any South African’s guess.