African Arguments

Top Menu

  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

logo

African Arguments

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
Politics
Home›African Arguments›Politics›FTSE ASEA Pan Africa Index Series: aiding investment with the brain – By James Duddridge, MP

FTSE ASEA Pan Africa Index Series: aiding investment with the brain – By James Duddridge, MP

By Uncategorised
December 7, 2012
2042
0

When considering Africa, people do not generally think of sky scrapers, city dealers, affluent middle classes, bankers in suits, screens of numbers and the trading of stocks and shares. This is, however, increasingly an African image we will have to get used to.

I recently went to a conference at the London Stock Exchange where investors were buzzing with enthusiasm for the growth in African shares.  I came away with the impression it was a bit of a gold rush, but I am always wary of the “˜next big thing’.  The story is, however, quite compelling: double digit annual growth in a number of counties;  over 10 percent of the shares on the Alternative Investment Market in London (AIM) are either primarily or totally involved in Africa;  The African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) is currently represented by 20 exchanges in 27 African countries  and the market is expanding rapidly.  In short, it is a great time to invest in Africa.

The 3 year performance of the FTSE Pan Africa Index compares very favourable with comparable indexes.

Some questions immediately spring to mind:  How do you measure the market?  Where do you start?  What are the big opportunities?  Which counties?  Which Companies?  The choice is bewildering for most, even before you worry about how to spread your risk or consider currency fluctuations.  But there is help…

We have all heard of the FTSE 100 Index  or the Dow Jones Industrial Average. We now have a new initiative  from FTSE Group: the FTSE ASEA Pan Africa Index Series (launched this week). Those wishing  to invest, track the market place, or compare funds, now have a suitable benchmark index.  This will help investors have the confidence to invest in funds and see how much they outperform, or underperform the index.

The Index excludes South Africa – a massive and much more mature market that would dwarf the output of other countries in it – instead focusing on Botswana, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Libya, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.  The index contains no more than 30 constituents per country and will have a maximum country weight of 20 percent.

I am now waiting for someone to launch a FTSE ASEA Pan Africa Index tracker fund which will allow investors to place money across the continent without paying large fees to asset managers.  Jonathan Cooper, Managing Director, Middle East & Africa, FTSE Group, said: “Investors are increasingly focused on frontier and emerging markets as a source of return and portfolio diversification.”

The lesson here is to love Africa with your heart, but invest in it with your brain.  The FTSE ASEA Pan Africa index has an impressive Year to Date (YTD) performance of almost 19 percent, compared with a YTD performance of under 5 percent for the FTSE BRIC 50 Index.  A thought worth pondering.

James Duddridge is a Conservative Member of Parliament in the UK with an interest in Africa having worked for Banks in Swaziland, Ivory Coast and Botswana.

Previous Article

Ghana: Elections As Usual – From IMANI ...

Next Article

African Court Not Ready for International Crimes ...

Uncategorised

0 comments

  1. Europe - Africa: Aiding Investment With the Brain 10 December, 2012 at 16:27

    […] See table: The 3 year performance of the FTSE Pan Africa Index compares very favourable with compara… […]

Leave a reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Politics

    What if everything the SDGs are premised on is just wrong?

  • The Masai, based in Tanzania and Kenya, are one of many indigenous peoples that have long been stewards of Africa's wildlife and ecosystems. Conservation. Credit: Pablo Fernández.
    Climate crisisCovid-19Society

    Africa will rise if we do it right

  • Politics

    China and Sudan: Defining the Turning Point

Subscribe to our newsletter

Click here to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and never miss a thing!

  • 81.7K+
    Followers

Find us on Facebook

Interactive Elections Map

Keep up to date with all the African elections.

Recent Posts

  • The unaccountability of Liberia’s polluting miners
  • Africa Elections 2023: All the upcoming votes
  • “Poking the Leopard’s Anus”: Legal Spectacle and Queer Feminist Politics
  • Introducing Parselelo and a new climate focus
  • The ‘Hustler’ Fund: Kenya’s Approach to National Transformation

Editor’s Picks

Editor's PicksLibyaPolitics

Libya: A country in need of a king?

Restoring a symbolic monarch may sound anachronistic, but after a decade of division and chaos, it makes perfect sense to many Libyans. More than a decade has passed since the ...
  • At the inauguration of President Joao Lourenco in Luanda, Angola. Credit: GCIS.

    Angola’s regime is scared

    By Paula Cristina Roque
    March 9, 2022
  • “What this generation wants”: African authors publishing direct to the web

    By Derick Matsengarwodzi
    April 1, 2021
  • Mauritians protesting on the streets in August 2020. Credit: Matt Savi.

    Mauritius: A picture perfect democracy’s fall from grace

    By Roukaya Kasenally
    May 12, 2021
  • Egypt’s sexual revolutionaries tackling the tyranny within

    By Mona Eltahawy
    October 20, 2021

Brought to you by


Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licence
Articles on African Arguments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
  • Cookies
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • en English
    am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu
© Copyright African Arguments 2020
By continuing to browse this site, you agree to our use of cookies.
en English
am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu