Global markets rallied into year-end to give the MSCI World Index its best year of the decade (+27.7%), leading the MSCI Emerging Market Index (+18.4%) by almost 10% for the year despite a much stronger December for EMs (7.5% vs 3.0% for developed markets). This, as China and the US agreed to a “phase 1” trade deal. Despite the rela..vely poor performance by EM stocks in 2019, the MSCI Russia Index was the best-performing major stock market in 2019, up 53% in US dollar terms. December also brought the prospect of some clarity to the UK with UK voters delivering Prime Minister Boris Johnson a strong mandate for exi..ng the EU by the end of January 2020. Brexit clarity helped the Bri..sh pound con..nue a rally which saw it rise over 10% since its August lows when the UK faced a real possibility of leaving the EU without a deal. Locally, the JSE Capped SWIX was up 3.1% in December. The rally helped the Index end the year 6.8% stronger but the annual US dollar return of 9.8% le.. it as the only major global index to not reach double-digit US dollar returns for the year. Pla..num shares were again leading the way, up another 20% to cap a year in which their share prices tripled! Gold and pla..num shares accounted for 80% of the Capped SWIX performance in 2019 and almost half of December’s performance. Naspers was the other key contributor in December as it combined with Prosus to end the month up 8%, in aggregate, helped by rand strength and a rally in Chinese shares.