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Four shares South Africans are pumping money into

South African investors have pumped billions into four local stocks – Sasol, Purple Group, Capitec and Shoprite – and international stocks like Nvidia and Tesla in 2024.

At the start of this year, Bank of America’s South Africa Fund Manager Survey revealed that local asset managers expect South African equities to outperform their global counterparts in 2024.

The survey showed renewed optimism surrounding South African assets, with managers anticipating double-digit returns from the domestic stock market. 

79% of those surveyed plan to increase their exposure to local stocks, showing a shift from the previous pessimism about the South African market.

This positive sentiment stems from the local equity market’s perceived undervaluation, which many managers believe leads to more buying opportunities.

While the election season has led to considerable volatility and uncertainty in the local markets, Old Mutual has warned investors not to act hastily and withdraw their investments.

In May, the insurer and asset manager advised investors to maintain resilience in their investment strategies and resist making hasty decisions driven by short-term market fluctuations.

Old Mutual chief economist Johann Els said investors must prepare for potential market swings across various asset classes due to the elections. 

“Political transitions breed uncertainty, often leading to heightened market volatility,” he said.

“However, looking at historical insights from political shifts in financial markets, markets tend to stabilise, and investors may notice a return to more predictable patterns.”

Daily Investor asked Purple Group—the owner of EasyEquities, one of the largest investment platforms in South Africa—what trends it has identified among South African investors in 2024.

Purple Group’s chief marketing officer, Carel Nolte, said the following trends have popped up among the platform’s users – 

  • Crypto buys, including meme coins and crypto bundles, are gaining ground.
  • Diversification is strong, with users investing across regions, asset classes and wallets.
  • Far more users are accessing the platform’s free education and completing courses – there is a strong demand for research and education.
  • Strong inflows have been seen on the Retirement Annuity side, with users wanting to hold more of their portfolio on one platform.

EasyEquities’ trends align with findings from the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (ASISA), which revealed these trends in its quarterly update on the local asset management industry. 

This update showed that South Africans are investing their money in local interest-bearing portfolios, such as money market funds, while equity portfolios saw meagre inflows, given the JSE’s poor performance in the first quarter of 2024. 

Its data also shows that participating asset management companies achieved total net inflows of R103 billion over the 12 months to the end of March 2024.

Senior ASISA policy adviser Sunette Mulder pointed out that the bulk of the net inflows was contributed by existing investors who reinvested income declarations (dividends and interest) worth R115 billion. 

Without the reinvestments, asset managers would have reported net outflows of R12 billion for the period.

This illustrates that South Africans remain under pressure, with many refusing to increase their contributions to their investment funds or cancelling them altogether.

Mulder said South Africans continued to steer away from equities into interest-bearing portfolios, which has been a trend over the past few years.

EasyEquities chief marketing officer, Carel Nolte,
Purple Group chief marketing officer Carel Nolte

What South Africans are buying

Nolte provided Daily Investor with the top local and international equities EasyEquities investors have bought since the start of 2024.

Top bought ZAR equities 
Instrument nameValue purchased
Sasol LimitedR181,727,960
Purple Group LimitedR76,416,959
Capitec Bank Holdings LimitedR54,300,403
Shoprite Holdings LimitedR33,031,879
Top bought USD equities 
Instrument nameValue purchased
Nvidia Corp$10,119,505
Tesla Inc$6,571,590
Microsoft Corp$2,562,644
Amazon.com Inc$1,829,380
Apple Inc$1,799,635

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