The BCI Worldwide Flexible Style Fund aims to deliver a high medium to long term total return by investing in growth, quality and/or value stocks depending on the manager’s view of the most suitable investment style at the time and may rotate investment styles based upon the manager’s view at the time

South African (SA) stocks did enough in December to push the local market into positive territory for 2020 (FTSE/JSE Capped SWIX Index +5.5 MoM and +0.7% for 2020). Most sectors contributed positively, the exception being the Naspers/Prosus complex, which were unable to overcome a strong currency headwind (the rand was up 5.3% MoM vs the US dollar) and negative sentiment around Chinese tech heavyweights (which came under scrutiny from Chinese anti-trust regulators). Still, despite a disappointing end to the year, Naspers and Prosus’ combined performance for 2020 resulted in a 37% gain, contributing 5.4% to the FTSE/JSE Capped SWIX Index performance for 2020.

Mining companies were up across the board, with platinum miners (+21% MoM and 47% higher for 2020) leading the way on the back of another strong performance from platinum group metals. Mining shares rose by 19% in aggregate for 2020, contributing 6% to the FTSE/JSE Capped SWIX Index. SA Inc. shares, sensitive to the domestic economy, also had a good month, particularly the local banks, which rose 8.8% MoM, although that was not nearly enough to put these counters into positive territory for the year as SA Inc . shares ended the year 16% weaker.