March marked the one-year anniversary of the first COVID-19 lockdowns which saw markets globally plummet significantly. The subsequent recovery has surprised many with one-year return numbers for most asset classes ending the month at high double-digit returns. Over the month, however, returns were a lot more muted across the board while Global Bonds continuing their sell-off (as US Treasuries declined for a fourth consecutive month). South African Bonds underperformed their Emerging Market peers while the SARB unanimously decided to keep the repo rate unchanged.
The JSE All Share Index (up 1.6%) had another positive month (ending the first quarter up 13.1%). SA Resource stocks (up 1.2%) were also able to produce positive returns (although they did end the month slightly behind Financials (up 1.7%) and Industrials (up 1.9%)). Over the quarter however, Resources (up 18.7%) remain the top performers with Industrials (up 13.0%) and Financials (up 3.8%) lagging significantly. Small-cap shares (up 7.7%) were the top performers in March, outperforming both Mid-cap (up 3.3%) and Large-cap (up 1.3%) shares. Emerging Market Equities underperformed their Developed Market peers with the MSCI World up 3.4% in US Dollar terms while the MSCI Emerging Market Index was down 1.5%. The SA REITs sector (down 0.2%) underperformed the South African Listed Property sector which managed to end the month up 1.2%. SA Bonds followed Global Bonds’ negative trend with the ALBI ending the month down 2.5%. The Rand appreciated 2.5% against the US Dollar, 3.8% the Pound Sterling and 5.6% against the Euro. Both the Oil Price (down 3.9% in USD) and the Gold Price (down 0.8% in USD) had negative months while Platinum managed to end the month slightly positive (up 0.4% in USD).
