The Ewing Trust Quarterly News

The financial year under review was a difficult one for the global economy, which has been driven by higher than expected global inflation. This was further fueled by the Central Banks raising interest rates which dried up liquidity. Combined with a global reduction in stimulus, global markets have vacillated in reaction to all of these factors.

We believe that we are not yet at the end of the interest rate hiking cycle, central banks and Governments are seeing a tempering of the rampant inflation as a result of the rapid increase in interest rates.

South African equities remained resilient up until a late sell-off of risk assets near the end of August, which followed the announcement by the US Federal Reserve of their intention to aggressively increase interest rates until inflation is brought back under control

The JSE All Share ended this quarter lower than the previous quarter, in line with a global selloff in most equity markets.

The financial year ending in February saw an increase in volatility and a return to risk-off investment strategies in global and local markets.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange ended strongly at 70475. This has been underpinned by a number of companies re-instituting dividends and declaring significantly better results than 2020.