The JSE ended up 27% last year, significantly higher. It also marked its best performance since 2012…. But here to discuss what lies ahead for the local market this year and where the gems are likely to be is Peter Armitage, the CEO of Anchor Capital. Peter, thanks so much for your time, and happy new year to you. Will the good times continue to roll this year for the JSE?
There were a few shares that did incredibly well, some quite big shares in fact. Investec up over 150%, MTN up 180%, and Thungela, the coal-mining company, up significantly. But generally if you look at all the sectors, it was pretty positive across the board. It was really just Naspers/Prosus from a big-company perspective that went backwards about 18%.
Then would you be buying into some of these travel and leisure shares, particularly the ones on the JSE: City Lodge, Sun International and Tsogo Sun? You’ve certainly seen prices come down significantly. Alibaba from around $300 to around $120. They’ve taken a big whack. We saw the impact of that through Tencent coming through into Naspers and Prosus, with that down 18% for the year; certainly they’ve been marked down quite significantly. The thing about Chinese regulation and the reason that the shares have been hit so hard is the complete lack of certainty; nobody can tell you what’s happening next.
What’s your take on Bitcoin? It hasn’t been a great start for Bitcoin, or the cryptocurrency space at large. But last year there were growing conversations and calls about the fact that it wouldn’t be a bad idea for fund managers to put a portion of investments into the crypto space. Just your take on Bitcoin and the factors that are likely to drive the crypto space this year?