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African markets weather global trading storm
AS global financial markets took a beating over the past few weeks, markets on the African continent behaved defensively, with only a few exceptions. One of the advantages of investing in Africa, says Investec Asset Management, is that, barring MSCI emerging markets index constituents SA, Egypt and Morocco, very few global money managers were active in the region.
African markets gained during this period including Côte d'Ivoire, which was up 5,1%, and Botswana which gained 2,1%. News of Chinese measures to cool the continent's red-hot economies was responsible for a sharp sell-off in global equity markets between February 26 and March 5.
Standard Chartered economist Razia Khan said: "Following the brief spate of volatility we have seen in markets recently, questions are increasingly being asked as to whether Africa's recent out-performance is due to commodity price strength alone.
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