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SA 'has recovered from worse market crashes'

Staff reporter

Staff reporter

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the beginning of South Africa's worst-ever stock market crash.

It was the day on which share prices peaked ahead of a collapse that even now triggers nightmares among those who were hammered by the 1969 monster.

Most of today's investors are convinced that they have just witnessed history's mother of all stock market collapses.

After all, they have seen their share values decimated by a horrific 40percent in the past 12 months.

"It could never have been as bad as it is now," they say.

Think again, said Monica Singer, chief executive of Strate, South Africa's Central Securities Depository, the nation's electronic securities settlement company.

"If you think 2008/09 has been calamitous, the 62percent collapse between May 1969 and October 1971 was a heck of a lot worse. It took several years for recovery to materialise post-1969."

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