The fund returned its second best monthly return of 5.28% for March. This was aided by a strong local equities market that continued to rebound from the lows reached in February. The two largest gainers , Steinhoff (up 14%) and Naspers (up 9.3%), were fortunately the fund's largest positions. Capitec was another strong contributor for the month as a result of another strong set of earnings from the company, confirming the strength of the business model and their rapid ascent as one of the challengers to the Big Four banks and continued market share gains. Blue Label Telecoms continued its strong performance, now up 32% ytd as investors start to value the optionality in India, Mexico and the Cell C deal. There were many shares which had disappointing performance over the past couple of months that rebounded again lately to assist with performance. The loss-makers were mainly in the offshore portfolio, which was unable to recover from a rand that strengthened 7.3%. The other noticeable loss was from Curro as investors lightened their positions ahead of the proposed rights issue and strong performance in the past few years.

Volatility remains elevated, with daily moves outsized, thus reducing the return per unit of risk taken. The net exposure to equities remains higher compared to the historic average as the opportunities in the market are still attractive and the fund employs the strategy of buying during dips. The market has had a good run and the chance of a temporary pullback has increased, but this is expected to be short and shallow. April is normally a quiet month with public holidays and few companies reporting. The structure of the portfolio remains positioned in the same manner it has been for some time, with only a few minor adjustments at a stock level.