{"id":864276,"date":"2026-06-23T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=864276"},"modified":"2026-06-22T16:32:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T14:32:03","slug":"best-news-in-17-years-for-south-african-stocks-from-one-of-the-united-states-largest-banks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business-opinion\/864276\/best-news-in-17-years-for-south-african-stocks-from-one-of-the-united-states-largest-banks\/","title":{"rendered":"Best news in 17 years for South African stocks from one of the United States’ largest banks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South African investors are optimistic about the South African equity market, with the highest share of buys to sells since 2009. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is according to Bank of America’s latest fund manager survey for June, with views from 14 fund managers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The survey showed that 64% of fund managers expect the South African equity market to be up in six months’\u00a0time, up from 50% last month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is still down from the 74% seen before the start of the Iran war in February. However, one should note that the survey was conducted between 5 and 11 June, prior to the Iran-United States peace deal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the latest survey, fading growth and inflation concerns propped up South African equity bulls, net 50% after a two-year low of 33% in May. This is still far below the pre-war February high of a net 88%.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, BofA said that the decline in equities since February leaves plenty of opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

93% of survey respondents are seeing more buys than sells, up from 58% in May. This is the highest score since 2009. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A net 57% of investors are overweight South African equities,\u00a0down from 67% last month but still elevated versus history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key risks for local equities are de-rating due to higher rate expectations, weaker earnings per share and sticky inflation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the primary sectors investors are looking at, banks remain the clear favourite, followed by metals and mining. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The least preferred sectors are beverages & tobacco\u00a0and gold, both of which have seen a\u00a0sharp cooling in sentiment, as well as\u00a0telecoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Direction<\/strong><\/td>Jun-26<\/strong><\/td>May-26<\/strong><\/td>Apr-26<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
Up<\/strong><\/td>79%<\/td>58%<\/td>69%<\/td><\/tr>
Down<\/strong><\/td>14%<\/td>8%<\/td>0%<\/td><\/tr>
Flat<\/strong><\/td>0%<\/td>17%<\/td>13%<\/td><\/tr>
Don’t know<\/strong><\/td>7%<\/td>17%<\/td>19%<\/td><\/tr>
—<\/td>—<\/td>—<\/td>—<\/td><\/tr>
Net Up<\/strong><\/td>64%<\/strong><\/td>50%<\/strong><\/td>69%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Total<\/strong><\/td>100%<\/strong><\/td>100%<\/strong><\/td>100%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div>
Source: BofA Global Research, South Africa Fund Manager Survey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Interest rate hike still likely <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The fund managers surveyed believed that the stagflation setup from last month has largely disappeared due to moves toward resolving the Iran conflict and lower oil prices.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A net 0% of fund managers were also bearish on the South African economy for the coming twelve months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was an improvement from the previous month, when a net 25% of fund managers expected the economy to weaken. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inflation expectations have also eased, with a net 7% of experts now expecting higher inflation over the next 12 months. This is far lower than the 75% of fund managers in May. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, hawkish South African Reserve Bank repricing remains, with a net 100% expecting a repo hike in Q3. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SARB was widely expected to cut interest rates at the start of the year, with inflation hovering around the new 3% target. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the war in Iran led to a massive surge in oil prices, followed by massive rises at the pumps in April. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the US-Iran peace deal is good news for the South African economy, SARB Deputy Governor Rashad Cassim recently told BusinessTech <\/a>that the SARB needs to see how sticky inflation is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sticky inflation means prices take longer to come back down, which could lead to further tightening to get prices back in line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food prices also remain a central concern for inflation, with higher oil prices potentially increasing input costs for fertilisers. Food is the second largest component of the CPI basket. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The El Ni\u00f1o weather phenomenon, which brings drought-like conditions to South Africa, poses another risk to inflation. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest fund manager survey from Bank of America sees the highest number of buys to sells in South Africa’s equity market since 2009.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":656481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5349,175],"class_list":["post-864276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-opinion","tag-bank-of-america","tag-jse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864276","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=864276"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":864294,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864276\/revisions\/864294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}