JSE Announces Winners Of 13th Annual Spire Awards - Excellence In South Africa’s Fixed Income, Currency And Commodity Derivatives Markets

The JSE announced the winners of the 13^th annual Spire Awards – recognising excellence in South Africa’s fixed income, currency and commodity derivatives markets – at a gala dinner last night. ABSA Capital emerged as the overall winner and was crowned as the Best Fixed Income and Currencies House. Rand Merchant Bank and Standard Bank took second and third place respectively.

Donna Oosthuyse: Director Capital Markets at the JSE says fixed income instruments play an important role in the portfolios of most pension funds and this means that almost all South Africans who contribute to pension funds are exposed to this asset class. “The awards not only allow the JSE to showcase the successes of some or our issuers, members and clients but to also to tell investors about the achievements of the strongest players in the industry.”

The Spire Awards are awarded based on trading volumes and votes cast by clients. Oosthuyse says that the voting process ensures that the awards remain credible and creates a highly competitive environment. “The JSE congratulates this year’s winners. The awards allow us to recognise the hard work and innovation of a range of different market participants, from brokers to researchers and sales teams as well as issuers.”

This year the bond market has seen over R14.5 trillion in trades take place until the end of September. This nominal amount traded can be attributed to R9.64 trillion of trade in the Repo market and R4.9 trillion in the Spot market. In the Spot market, 89% of the nominal traded was in Government Bonds. Bonds to the value of R190 billion have been issued on the JSE’s bond market this year, with corporates accounting for R80 billion of the issuance.

The Overall Winners for the 2014 Spire Awards are as follows:

The Category Winners for the 2014 Spire Awards are as follows: