{"id":1803,"date":"2024-07-26T12:37:28","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T12:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/?p=1803"},"modified":"2026-03-18T11:46:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T11:46:06","slug":"r100-invested-in-the-jse-top-40-and-sp-500-in-2024-the-winner-is-clear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/2024\/07\/26\/r100-invested-in-the-jse-top-40-and-sp-500-in-2024-the-winner-is-clear\/","title":{"rendered":"R100 invested in the JSE Top 40 and S&P 500 in 2024 \u2013 the winner is clear"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The S&P 500 has outperformed the JSE Top 40 year-to-date. However, the renewed optimism in South Africa can drive the local index.<\/p>\n

South African markets have suffered greatly over the last decade, with state capture, the Zuma years, and poor economic growth hurting the country.<\/p>\n

Daily load-shedding, Transnet\u2019s collapse, and water problems added to this, forcing businesses into survival mode.<\/p>\n

However, over the last few months, South Africa has had numerous positive developments that have bolstered the markets.<\/p>\n

The country formed a government of national unity following the 2024 national elections, avoiding a left-leaning ANC\/EFF\/MK coalition.<\/p>\n

South Africa has also experienced over four months without load-shedding, which reduced business costs and brought down inflation.<\/p>\n

Another positive development is that Transnet is getting fixed through private participation, which will improve exports.<\/p>\n

However, the country still faces headwinds. Political uncertainty and the difficult business operating environment will take years to fix.<\/p>\n

Despite these challenges, many investment experts view South Africa as a more attractive destination than previously.<\/p>\n

Since the election, foreign investors have bought R12.2 billion of local bonds, bringing the year-to-date inflows to R22.2 billion. This exceeds the R16.5 billion from last year.<\/p>\n

South African stocks have also received increased interest from investors, with foreigners pumping billions into them at the end of June.<\/p>\n

Money flowing into South African assets increases demand for the local currency, strengthening relative to its peers.<\/p>\n

This significant shift in sentiment cuts against the trend seen in South African financial markets over the past decade.<\/p>\n

It raises the question of whether it was best to invest in the local market or choose the United States.<\/p>\n

To answer this question, Daily Investor compared the performance of the JSE Top 40 and the S&P 500 in 2024 in rand.<\/p>\n

The JSE Top 40 refers to the 40 biggest companies on the JSE by market capitalisation. It includes big companies like BHP, Richemont, Naspers, FirstRand, and MTN.<\/p>\n

The S&P 500, or Standard & Poor\u2019s 500 Index, is a market-capitalization-weighted index of 500 leading publicly traded companies in the United States.<\/p>\n

The S&P 500 is heavily skewed towards the technology giants Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Google, and Amazon.<\/p>\n

The analysis showed that the JSE Top 40 index returned 6.1% in 2024, while the S&P 500 index returned 14.4%.<\/p>\n

This means that despite the strong performance of local stocks since the election, the S&P 500 was still the best option this year.<\/p>\n

The chart below shows the performance of the JSE Top 40 and S&P 500 year-to-date.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Credit: Daily Investor<\/span><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The S&P 500 has outperformed the JSE Top 40 year-to-date. However, the renewed optimism in South Africa can drive the local index. South African markets…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-innov8ions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1803"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1806,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1803\/revisions\/1806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innov8fs.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}