World-Beating Stocks Show Sometimes It's Best to Stay Put: Chart

(Bloomberg) -- South African investors who have been moving money offshore, fearful of perennial rand weakness and political upheaval, would probably have done better if they’d stayed put. The domestic benchmark stock index has outperformed most major gauges across the globe in dollar terms over the past two decades, even as the local currency lost half its value against the greenback. That’s partly because the biggest Johannesburg-traded stocks are rand hedges that prosper at times of weakness in the currency.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Brand in Cape Town at rbrand9@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Samuel Potter at spotter33@bloomberg.net, John Viljoen, Michael Gunn

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