The South African (SA) equity market’s recent streak as a top-performing global bourse ended abruptly in March (FTSE/JSE Capped All Share -10.5% domestic equities on the last day of March saved the local bourse from delivering its worst monthly drawdown since the global financial crisis almost miners, the driving force of recent outperformance, were the biggest detractors last month.

Gold miners (-18% MoM) and platinum miners (-25% MoM the JSE’s March drawdown, with the precious metal miners’ share prices tracking precious metal prices sharply lower. Gold (-12% MoM) saw a quarter the first few weeks of March before a late-month rally eased some of the pain for the yellow metal investors. Platinum (-18% MoM) fared even worse, its recent rally that the March drawdown has only taken its price back to late-December levels.

The pain on the JSE was not limited to precious metal miners, with drawdowns across most sectors. Domestic economy bellwethers, the banks (-10% erased in March. Resource companies operating in the energy sector were the only real bright spot on the JSE, with coal miners Thungela (+51% MoM rallying alongside Sasol (+55% MoM). Glencore (+12% MoM) was another resource company to benefit from its exposure to energy markets. Local bonds were another casualty of the March sell-off.

The FTSE/JSE All Bond Index of SA government bonds had the second-worst month in its 2 the SA government’s 10-year borrowing rate spiked 1.2% to 9.3% p.a. during March. The SA Reserve Bank (SARB) meeting in late March ended in a decision to keep rates on hold at 6.75% p.a. (as expected).

The meeting was held days data release showed prices in the country’s inflation basket rising in line with the SARB’s new 3% target, albeit before the impact of the recent energy p into the data, and with still meaningful uncertainty about the longevity of the higher energy prices.

The rand was the worst-performing major currency in March, falling 5.9% MoM against a strong US dollar as investors flocked to the relative safety of losses erased early-2026 gains to leave the local currency 2.2% weaker against the US dollar for 1Q26, though it is still 8.2% stronger than the US curre