The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) experienced a significant downturn last week, losing over 9.2% of its value and effectively erasing almost all of its gains for 2026, according to reports from Moneyweb and confirmed by data from Google Finance.
The decline represents a wipeout of more than R2 trillion in market capitalization, coinciding with increased volatility in emerging markets linked to the ongoing Middle East crisis. The JSE All Share Index closed at 16,363.00 on March 9, 2026, according to Google Finance data.
Financial data released by the JSE indicates a revenue of 825.15 million ZAR for the fiscal quarter ending June 30, 2025, representing an 11.82% year-over-year increase. However, operating expenses too rose, increasing by 9.13% to 536.75 million ZAR. Net income for the same period was reported at 278.91 million ZAR, a 13.22% increase, resulting in a net profit margin of 33.80%.
Several key companies listed on the JSE experienced minimal movement on March 9th. Nedbank Group Ltd remained unchanged at ZAC 27,675.00, while Standard Bank Group Ltd saw a slight increase of 0.069% to ZAC 29,163.00. Absa Group Ltd rose by 1.90% to ZAC 23,915.00. Ninety One Ltd showed the largest percentage gain among the listed companies, increasing by 12.45% to ZAC 4,976.00.
Dr. Leila Fourie recently handed over the role of JSE CEO to Valdene Reddy, a transition occurring amidst this period of market growth and subsequent decline, as reported by IOL.
A comment on a Moneyweb post on LinkedIn from Samkelo Nkosi noted a 2 trillion rand impact on the FX order book depth, corroborating the scale of the market downturn.
