CELEBRATING SA’S TALENTED FINANCIAL ANALYSTS
In celebrating some of the gains over the past year amidst the global Covid-19 pandemic, Dr Leila Fourie, CEO of the JSE highlighted aspects of the economy that have outperformed expectations, during the 2021 Financial Mail Top Analyst awards, held on 25 May.
Fourie believes that investors who kept the faith and remained invested in South Africa would have been richly rewarded as the JSE’s headline indices outperformed several emerging and developing markets, ending 2020 in positive territory.
“As we entered the [2021] New Year, the FTSE All Share Index ended the first quarter up 12 percent against a 22 percent decline at the same point in the prior year. It was our strongest quarter since 2006,” says Fourie.
The Financial Mail Top Analyst is the only survey in South Africa that provides a reliable and independent ranking of skills in the industry.
The Rand had a fortuitous start to the year as the only major emerging market currency to strengthen against the dollar, dipping below the psychological level of R14 to the US Dollar. In addition, commodities continued to be boosted by increasing demand, which pushed up prices even further to support South Africa’s economic fundamentals.
Stuart Theobald, Chairman of Intellidex, who for the past 8 years have conducted the Top Analyst research, similarly noted that 2021 reflected changes in the weightings applied to the 40 different categories, most notably in commodities, where precious metals made significant gains.
Theobald says the Top Analyst survey is by far the most comprehensive assessment of SA market coverage with 90% of the institutional stock broking market being evaluated through confidential questionnaires completed by their domestic institutional clients.
For the sixth consecutive year, Standard Bank SBG Securities was awarded as the Overall Top Firm, while also reclaiming the number one ranking as
Top firm – Execution: Fixed Interest Securities. For the fourth straight year, RMB Morgan Stanley maintained its ranking as the Top firm – Execution: Equities Dealing, while again claiming top spot in the Corporate Access, Administration, and Sales Team categories. Peresec was awarded as the
Top firm – Derivatives.
The Young Analyst awards were adjudicated by the CFA, with twelve entries received across nine firms.
“We’re very proud to partner once again, to showcase the young analysts who are under thirty. It’s important that we identify this talent
because the industry itself is full of very strong stalwart analysts,” says Jenny Henry, Ethical and Courageous Investment Leadership at CFA Society South Africa.
Keamogetse Konopi from Standard Bank SBG Securities was announced as the Young Analyst of the Year: Equities for research on ‘Transaction Capital -- Life’s certainties: debt and taxes. Reezwana Sumad of Nedgroup Securities won the Young Analyst of the Year: Non-equities category for the research theme ‘Budget Preview: Yield sensitivity to a deteriorating fiscus.’
In addition to receiving their Young Analyst awards, the winners were each presented with a goodwill sponsorship of R12,500 from Iress, to support chosen community service projects: the Pebbles Project (Western Cape) and Healing Word (Gauteng).
In making the donation, Ray Pretorius, MD of Iress South Africa, believes early childhood development is critical to the success of tomorrow’s leaders. “These organisations provide much needed educational support, parental support, and resources to disadvantaged communities, paving the way for a brighter future.”