{"id":785090,"date":"2024-08-01T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=785090"},"modified":"2024-08-01T11:12:24","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T09:12:24","slug":"investors-still-not-fully-sold-on-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/785090\/investors-still-not-fully-sold-on-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Investors still not sold on South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>South African assets may have been buoyed by the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU), but international investors are not yet convinced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2024 national elections saw the ANC lose its majority in parliament for the first time in the democratic era, with it accruing only 40% of the vote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ANC thus formed a GNU with ten other parties, most notably the DA and IFP, which are both seen as business-friendly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After the announcement, South African equities, bonds and the rand strengthened significantly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Bank of America&#8217;s (BofA&#8217;s) latest South African Fund Manager Survey showed a bullish outlook on equities amongst South African investors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The survey shows a huge jump in investor optimism, with 82% of respondents expecting more buys than sells for equities over the next 12 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>88% of managers would also overweight domestic stocks over the next 12 months, while 77% said that they were optimistic about equities over the next three to five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Banks, apparel retail and software were the most promising sectors among fund managers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A higher net of 82% (47% in June) also expects the economy to get a little stronger over the next 12 months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A similar net of 76% also showed that inflation to be \u2018slightly lower\u2019 over the next 12 months. BofA&#8217;s economists expect the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) to cut interest rates in September amid the lower inflation prints. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the boost in South African assets, Ninety One portfolio manager Duane Cable\u00a0said that foreigners have not yet fully bought into the GNU, especially in the equity market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since 2016, foreigners have been net sellers of South African equities, and this is still the case following the formation of the GNU. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Cable, foreign investors are adopting a &#8220;show me&#8221; approach before backing the South African market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given their worldwide popularity, foreign investors are used to coalition governments, but many ultimately fail. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking forward, Cable added that South Africa has to show real growth initiatives before foreigners get involved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Historically, foreigners made up roughly 50% of the equity market and 45% of the bond market. Today, this is around 25% to 35%  <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/ninety-one-international-investors.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"584\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/ninety-one-international-investors-1024x584.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-785091\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/ninety-one-international-investors-1024x584.png 1024w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/ninety-one-international-investors-300x171.png 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/ninety-one-international-investors-768x438.png 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/ninety-one-international-investors.png 1259w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>That said, Cable&#8217;s team is still invested in several SA Inc. shares, including Standard Bank, FirstRand, Capitec, Santam, Discovery, and the JSE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These businesses have been able to muddle through a very tough environment for the last five years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If there is growth, Ninety One&#8217;s bull case sees these stocks improving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>The strengths of the GNU<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the GNU has yet to get approval from international investors, its formation does present an opportunity for the government&#8217;s top brass. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ninety One&#8217;s other portfolio manager, Malcolm Charles, said that the GNU rejected left-wing populist ideals to form a party predominantly of the centre-left and centre-right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Charles added that President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed a respectable cabinet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A potential upside of the proliferation of parties is that ministers are now in competition with one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This means that delivery should be a lot better than the 6th administration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This should lead to faster reforms, which would boost the economy and create more jobs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/785065\/discovery-preparing-legal-challenge-to-the-nhi\/\">Discovery preparing legal challenge to the NHI<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ninety One says that the Government of National Unity could bring in constructive competition from minsiters. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":655353,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[5349,26,19703],"class_list":["post-785090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-bank-of-america","tag-headline","tag-ninety-one-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785090"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":785189,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785090\/revisions\/785189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}