IT was a much better move to have invested in companies listed on the main board of the Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX) last year, than keeping cash or buying government securities.

The NSX overall returned a 34,1% last year, according to Cirrus Securities' annual asset allocation analysis.

This annual performance is considerably better than the MSCI world index and both South African and Namibian government securities, which returned 29,6%, 8,4% and 4,6% (6,9% for inflation-linked bonds) respectively.

According to Cirrus, cash in a savings account earned a mere 3,8% last year, while the NSX commodity index returned a shameful 0,1% from an all-high 26% in 2020.

Some analysts have attributed the rise in equity returns to the relative recovery of share prices, following the onslaught of the market when Covid-19 dawned.

This could also explain why the commodity index performed better in 2020.

Many investors sought to park their funds in commodities which tend to be a better safe haven when crises hit economies.

The NSX this week released annual data for all boards, showing that over N$11 billion was traded on the bourse last year.

That is N$10 billion on the main board, N$786 worth of exchange traded funds (ETFs) and N$5 million on the development board.

Leading this pack is the financial services sector with over N$5,7 billion worth of trade, followed by basic materials industry (mainly Anglo American Plc) at N$1,8 billion.

The other notable sector which registered trade of over N$1 billion was consumer staples companies (Shoprite, Oceana and Namibia Breweries), which saw trade tallying to N$1,2 billion.

The remaining clusters were all below N$1 billion, with healthcare (Mediclinic) at N$405 million, telecommunications at N$115 million, and industrials at N$407 million.

The real estate sector (Oryx and Vukile) had minimal trade at N$105 million, but returned the highest and only double-digit dividend yield of 11,42%.

The utilities space (mainly Anirep) showed the least trade, with only one deal for the whole year valued at N$3 150.

On the main board, the Trustco Holdings Group was the worst performer among individual companies, with the share price dropping by 70,2% to a low of N$1,25. 

At the beginning of the year, Trustco was at N$4,20, and averaged at N$14,00 throughout 2021.

Other low performers included Oryx Properties, which was down by 35,8%, B2Gold, which was down by 25,7%, and Letshego Holdings Namibia, with a drop of 26,3%. 

Paladin Energy Limited tops the list with a share price increase of 260%, followed by Barloworld Limited, with a 65,1% increase. 

Namibia Breweries also performed well, with an increase of 48,8%, and Shoprite Holdings was up with 48,9%. 

The development board had the best-performing shares for the year, with Elevate Uranium (former Marenica Energy) up 206%, Bannerman Energy up 194,3%, and Forsys Metals Corp up 191,3%. 

Deep Yellow Limited's shares performed well, with an increase of 89,1%. 

Despite these big gains and share prices on the development board all below N$10,50, only five deals were recorded for this board – valued at N$5,8 million.

Agra Limited remained solo in the OTC board, edging up in 2021 to N$1,85 per share, and two companies remain listed as capital pool companies still awaiting a company or operations worth lifting to the bourse. 

Anirep and Stimulus Limited were the only companies of which the share price remained flat all year at N$9,00 and N$127,90 respectively. 

Last year sadly also saw the delisting of Afrox Limited, and Trustco has given an indication that it could delist this year – or not.