In April our average prudential balanced portfolio returned 1.32% (March 0.86%). Top performer is Stanlib (1.99%), while Allan Gray (0.33%) takes bottom spot.

Stimulating European economies is likely to provide an impetus to European equities and foreign  capital is likely to prefer depressed European equity markets above those of the developing world who have returned to pre-crisis levels. As the result, our equity markets are unlikely to show the type of growth we have seen since the start of 2009. We would still expect our markets to produce reasonable  returns while interest rates are likely to remain low, cash probably negative in real terms. Any recovery of the Rand should be used as an opportunity to diversify offshore and to invest in equity markets that were particularly hard hit by negative sentiment. These can mainly be found in Europe.