Our Quarterly Commentary aims to carry and share the bulk of our reflections and analysis of the previous quarter. To help cater to your preferences, we've provided various avenues for navigating through an entire Quarter's worth of news and data. 

• You can view the full recorded feedback session (± 1 hour) here for a deep dive into the last quarter

• If you'd prefer a quick overview, check out the shorter video commentary (± 10 min), focused on Relative Returns & Investor Utility

• The presentation slides are also linked below

• And for the real meat, scroll a little further to find the full detailed commentaries on both South African (45 pages) and Global markets (14 pages) and portfolios

• To catch up on past insights, please visit our blog for a recap of previous commentaries. 

And, of course, if you'd like to engage in further discussion, please don't hesitate to reach out. We're always here and ready to chat.

Sending love to you and yours,
Richard and the F&A Team 

This piece was compiled by Brendan de Jongh, SA Head of Research at PortfolioMetrix.

Overall, the fourth quarter of the year saw strong performance from most asset classes. Previously weak property stocks (Real Estate Investment Trusts) rose most, with smaller companies and emerging market debt also rising particularly strongly. Commodities fell, weighed down by oil and gas weakness, as did Chinese equities on the back of continued worries over the Chinese economy. The last two months of the quarter were particularly strong with the S&P500 providing its 12th best rolling 2-month return since 1950. Positive sentiment was driven by falling inflation and an unexpectedly dovish rhetoric from central bankers, in particular, the US Federal Reserve.

The tables below summarise the asset class movements over the last five calendar years and the last quarter.

If you would like to watch the shorter video summary - largely focused on Relative Returns & Investor Utility, you can do so here. Or you can access the presentation slides here. 

For the full Local & Global Quarterly Fund Commentaries, please click the links below.

Provides a commentary on the past quarter, its events and their impacts; as well as more intimate commentary on each moving part within your portfolios.

Provides intimate commentary on each moving part within your portfolios.