Top40 all time highs|dalle-3
Local investors in the Top40 index are loving the repeated new all-time highs we’ve been seeing. But it wasn’t always all smiles for the index.
After the global financial crisis in 2008/09 the index managed a great couple of years almost tripling between 2009 and 2014. But then it went sideways at around 45,000 points for some three years. It then took a step higher to around 50,000 points and got stuck again.
TOP40 FTSE/JSE | performance to MAY 7 2025
But since the pandemic sell off in 2020 the index has moved strongly and from the pandemic lows it has more than doubled.
Many will wonder why, when the economy has hardly been growing and consumers, while better off, are still under pressure from high interest rates and administrated cost increases (think your Eskom, rates and water bills).
But as the top ten holdings chart below shows, the index is hardly local. Sure the big banks are there; Capitec, Firstrand and Standard Bank. But the rest is either China (Naspers and Prosus), mining (especially gold), MTN with over 200million customers across the African continent and British American Tobacco selling all over the world.
TOP40 | top 10 holdings | MARCH 2025
The index is market cap weighted, so the larger the company the larger their weighting in the index. It is also across all sectors on the JSE and there are a numbers of variants of it. The SWIX, Shariah and Rafi* being three.
In 2021 Satrix also listed a Satrix Capped All Share ETF.
But for me personally, I sit happy with the vanilla Top40 ETF and some Rafi in the account of my niece and nephew. Sure the index lagged the exciting tech US indices over the last few years, but as those are under pressure right now, it’s great to see new highs from our local is lekker. This is diversification at work.
Here are the vanilla Top40 ETF options on the JSE
- 10X S&P SA Top 50 (CTOP50) TER 0.25%
- 1nvest Top 40 (ETFT40) TER 0.30%
- FNB Top 40 (FNBT40) TER 0.11%
- Satrix Top 40 (STX40*) TER 0.10%
- Sygnia Itrix Top 40 (SYGT40) TER 0.16%
The 10X Investment ETF is actually the Top50 which adds a little extra colour with ten extra stocks. But as they’re in positions 41-50 and very small, they may not have much impact on returns.
All charts by KoyFin | Get 10% off your order
ETF blog
At Just One Lap, we are big fans of passive investment using ETFs. In this weekly blog, we discuss ETFs on the local market and the factors you need to consider when choosing an ETF. If you have wondered how one ETF differs from another, this is where you can find out. We explain which index each ETF tracks, what type of portfolio could benefit from holding each ETF, and how the costs will affect your bottom line.
