Best and worst JSE performers in 2022

With the general market ending 2022 broadly flat (down 0.9%, or up 3.6% together with dividends), final yr the cash was made with inventory choosing.

In greenback phrases, the JSE All Share Index was down 7.3% in 2022 (or -3.1%, when factoring in dividends).

Needless to say, a calendar yr is solely an arbitrary measurement of time – completely different conclusions may be reached by analysing a special (and random) time interval. For instance, Naspers was up by almost two-thirds (63%) in the final 9 weeks of the yr.

There was cash to be made throughout the JSE Top 40

Eight shares – Nedbank, African Rainbow Minerals, Absa Group, Woolworths, Investec plc, Glencore, Exxaro and Mediclinic International – have been up over 20% in the yr. These banks had been relative underperformers versus Capitec, FirstRand and Standard Bank in current years.

Commodity value pullbacks by way of the yr however, these extra centered commodity counters fared higher than Anglo American and BHP. Woolies lastly solved its David Jones drawback in Australia and Mediclinic authorised a buyout supply from dad or mum Remgro and unlikely bidder MSC in August.

By distinction, shares in Anglo American Platinum, MTN and Mondi ended 2022 greater than 20% decrease.

Amplats took successful as costs of platinum group metals (PGMs) got here beneath strain through the yr. MTN’s struggles throughout the continent – particularly working in and getting money out of Nigeria – are well-known (after the market closed on Friday, it introduced that it had been slapped with a R13 billion tax invoice by Ghanaian authorities). And the impression of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led to a pointy selloff in Mondi shares on the finish of February (it has sizeable operations in each nations.)

Moneyweb’s wonderful Company Stats software permits one to filter firms by efficiency over quite a few time durations in addition to in accordance with varied ratios – equivalent to ahead price-earnings ratio (PE), PE, dividend yield, return on fairness and so on). This software is accessible to Moneyweb Insider Gold subscribers.

The winners

The share costs of six JSE-listed firms greater than doubled in 2022, with 4 of those greater than tripling. Sure, there are smaller firms on this checklist, together with Stefanutti Stocks (R300 million market cap, up 259% final yr) and MC Mining (beforehand Coal of Africa; R1.3 billion market cap, up 205% in 2022). Shares of very thinly-traded Deutsche Konsum Reit (actual property funding belief) have been up 485%.

But Grindrod (market cap of almost R7 billion) was up 106% final yr because it finalised its restructuring to concentrate on ports, terminals and logistics (it bought its financial institution in November). Transnet’s horrid yr ensured that Grindrod’s Mozambican terminals grabbed market share, which the state-owned logistics firm goes to battle to get again.

Investment holding group HCI (market cap of R13 billion) was up 105% as a result of a put up Covid-19 turnaround in its Tsogo Sun and Southern Sun leisure property. News of an oil discovery off the coast of Namibia despatched the share value rocketing early in the yr. It owns a ten% oblique share in the Venus block. Some estimates have put the stake of HCI/TotalEnergies three way partnership Impact Oil at between $500 million and $1 billion. HCI’s share of that may very well be as a lot as R8 billion – virtually the rise in its market cap by way of the yr. It plans to monetise the stake in the following two years.

Finally, stock-pick favorite Thungela Resources (market cap of R35 billion) was up 224%. This adopted a outstanding 192% run from its itemizing value of R29 in 2021. It could be tempting to say that Anglo American’s bankers mispriced these property once they have been spun out of the group (simply because the ESG mania had reached its crescendo). To be honest, they might not have predicted that international coal costs would quadruple over the past two years.

Biggest losers

On the other finish, Steinhoff, Murray & Roberts and Nampak all endured disastrous years, with declines in extra of 70%. These have been former market darlings, as detailed in this Moneyweb evaluation.

Steinhoff’s decline got here in mid-December when it introduced that it had reached an settlement with collectors to resolve the present unsustainably excessive ranges of debt in the group. If shareholders conform to the transaction, they’ll retain 20% of the group (collectors will maintain the opposite 80%). If they don’t vote in favour of the transaction, they’ll get worn out fully. Shares greater than halved from R1.69 to 58c following the information. Steinhoff shares ended the yr down 89.5%.

Over a dozen listed shares noticed their share costs greater than halve through the yr. Four of those are microcaps and it’s clear that it’s not acceptable for these firms to be listed.

Sable Exploration and Mining has a market cap of simply R4 million (down 91% final yr), Visual International Holdings R12 million (down 50% in 2022) and AH-Vest R18 million (down 63% in 2022). These shares are all very thinly traded.

Mantengu Mining (beforehand Mine Restoration Investments) has a market worth of R1.5 billion, however it battled to boost R15 million in a rights supply late final yr.

Smaller Jasco (market cap R48 million), Labat (market cap R60 million) and Kibo Energy (R91 million) noticed their shares down 58%, 65.5% and 50%, respectively. Brikor, which returned from suspension in 2020, noticed a 63.6% drop in its share value throughout 2022.

Delta Property Fund (which ended the yr with a market worth of R214 million) had a torrid yr on the again of an equally robust 2021, when commerce in its shares on the JSE was suspended for seven months . Following the discharge of its 2022 outcomes in May, shares dropped from round 59c to 43c. They fell once more following the announcement of its interim outcomes in November. Delta shares ended 2022 down 52%.

Finbond, with a market cap of half a billion rand, noticed its shares down by two-thirds (66.7%) in 2022. RMB Holdings continued its said technique of “monetising” its property and returning money to shareholders. This implies that its asset base will proceed to shrink till there’s, in impact, no firm left. Its shares have been down 65% in the yr. It returned R2 billion in the second half of final yr, in the type of a R1.24 particular dividend, following the disposal of its stake in Atterbury Europe.

In most of the above instances, sentiment would’ve turned damaging sooner or later through the yr. This would possibly’ve been due to some information or data that had not been public beforehand.

In different instances, these firms is also going through critical (and even existential) challenges operationally. Some, like Murray & Roberts and Nampak, may very well be actual restoration tales. There are some apparent comparisons to turnarounds at Omnia and Super Group, as soon as their capital constructions have been mounted. But investments like this carry a big quantity of threat (witness: Steinhoff).

Perhaps the bargains are to be discovered someplace in the center, in these shares that didn’t shoot the lights out or plummet to new lows?