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The SA equity market (All Share Index) provided an index return of 28.6% in 2009 and a total return of 32.1%. This makes it the 12th best annual (calendar) performance since 1960 and a spectacular outcome given all the extreme financial market, banking and credit market concerns that prevailed at the start of the year. The return was well above the long-term average (50 year) return of around 14.5%, and even more spectacular when compared on an inflation adjusted basis.
The 2009 performance follows the SA equity market?s second worst calendar performance in 2008 of -25.7% (index) and -23.2% (total return).
In Dollar terms, the SA equity index provided a spectacular return of around 61.1% in 2009. However, compared to other emerging markets this was below the weighted average return of around 72.9% in Dollars, (Brazil +142.8%), but it was substantially better than the 28% Dollar return achieved by the developed markets.
(The world bond index provided a return of a mere 3.1% in Dollars in 2009, although the EMBI+ (emerging market bonds) yielded a healthy return of around 25.8% in Dollar terms.)
The SA equity index has yielded a positive return in 36 out of the last 50 calendar years. That is 72% of the time. The distribution (volatility/risk) of those returns has obviously been fairly extreme ranging from a best year of +81.8% in 1979 to a low of -29.7% in 1970. Despite the extreme volatility, the equity market has been, by far, the best performing asset class in SA over that time.
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