Last year was a strong one for the JSE equity market with SA Inc-type stocks doing particularly well. The benchmark FTSE/JSE capped Swix index gained 13.5% year on year, despite three lacklustre months at year-end, with equities geared to the local economy up 21%, says Anchor Capital.
It wasn’t a bad year for the JSE itself either, with signs that the long decline in equity market listings might finally be ending.
According to the JSE, there were 12 delistings from the JSE in 2024. But that was offset by eight new listings. That’s a dramatic change from the net 17 delistings each year on average for the previous five years, notes Amaranth’s Paul Miller, who believes the delistings tide might finally be turning.
The JSE equities board now hosts just 280 companies, several of which are dual listings. That’s a devastating drop from 460 two decades ago and over 600 at its peak in the late 1990s.
That’s shrunk the financial ecosystem around the bourse as well as limiting investor choice.
There are many reasons for the delistings but the more fundamental problem has been the dearth of new listings in an economy which has stagnated for more than a decade. To lift the JSE, the economy must grow.
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