South African ETF Digging Its Way Up

May 07, 2008 at 11:00 am by Tom Lydon

The South African benchmark rose its highest since March 25, mining strong performance for its exchange traded fund (ETF).

The FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index rose by its largest amount since March 25 yesterday. Some of the most active in the South African market in trading can be found as holdings in the iShares MSCI South Africa Index (EZA), according to Janice Kew and Garth Theunissen for Bloomberg.

EZA rose 3.8% yesterday, and year-to-date, it’s up 2.2%. Some of the most active stocks were:

AngloGold Ashanti Ltd.: 3.6% in EZA; South Africa’s biggest gold producer
Impala Platinum Holdings LTD.: 10%; second-largest metal producer in the world
MTN Group Ltd.: 11%; South African mobile phone company
Sasol Ltd.: 13.9%; Manufacturer of motor fuel from coal

The South Africa ETF and streetTRACKS Gold Shares (GLD) have moved in an opposite direction in the last several months, primarily because of ongoing issues with electricity in the country. As the power supply is disrupted, mining is cut short, ultimately affecting the supply and price of gold. The power supply issue remains a problem in South Africa, but appears to be improving somewhat.