Mauritius financial services major MCB held another successful edition of the Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM) Young Investor competition on Friday, 3 October 2014, designed to educate young investors on leveraging stock markets to optimize their returns.

Team A of Port-Louis State Secondary School (SSS) emerged as the new breed of successful investors for this year’s competition, based on the appreciable portfolio growth it successfully achieved.

The winning team, comprising Marie Haifa Joannuchi, Azimah Bibi Bahadoorally Adam, Hanna Deborah Julie, Marie Cassandra Chloé Marius and Nafisa Bibi Katija Kumally, achieved a highly commendable performance of 9.4% over a 3 month-period. As from this year, the winning team also sees its return on investment transformed from virtual to real cash.

Accordingly, Team A from Port Louis SSS won a cheque of Rs 150,000, which transforms the virtual sum of Rs 100,000 which it won on its stock exchange investment into real cash, as well as an exceptional bonus of Rs 50,000.

To maintain the interest of the winners in the evolution of the SEM, the MCB also handed the team MCB Group shares of a total value of Rs 2,500 per person as well as an internship at the MCB Capital Markets.

The prize giving ceremony of the SEM Young Investor Award 2014, the 22nd such event, was held at the Octave Wiehé Auditorium, Réduit, in the presence of Sunil Benimadhu, Chief Executive of the Stock Exchange of Mauritius, and Gilbert Gnany, Chief Strategy Officer of the MCB Group.

The sponsors for this competition were MCB Group represented by Gilbert Gnany, The National Mutual Fund represented by Bertrand Casteres, Aon Hewitt Limited represented by Imrith Ramtohul and the CFA Society of Mauritius, as represented by Randhir Mannick.

This year’s competition lasted between the 1st April and the 30th June, a period that saw the broad-based SEMDEX, which represents the prices of all listed stocks, experience a year-on-year dip of 0.3%. On the other hand, over the same period, the SEMTRI, or total returns index, experienced a rise of 0.6%.

With 1,090 students spread across 218 teams and hailing from 109 schools in Mauritius, the competition saw 120 teams outperform the SEMDEX and 107 teams outperform the SEMTRI.

The aim of this competition was to help the participants better appreciate the forces and factors that determine a company’s share price, introduce them to the notion of risk and volatility and facilitate their understanding of the link between the stock market and economic activity.

Sunil Benimadhu mentioned that the SEM has successfully held the SEM Young Investor Award for 22 years, and now they want to take their educational initiative to another level and embrace the national agenda of educating the population at large about the activities of the SEM and the operations of their stock market.

He stated that SEM will continue forge ahead in terms of new listings and new products and transform its platform over time into a multi-asset class platform trading both local and international products.

Sunil Benimadhu expressed the hope that many of the participants would soon venture investing real money on the Exchange, as it has been an enriching experience for all participants.

“Our educational campaign aims at increasing the number of investors in our market from the current level of 100,000 to 150,000 by end 2016,” the latter mentioned.

In addition, he announced the listing of SEM’s first international equity Exchange-Traded-Fund (ETF), eRAFI-40, slated for today.

This new product will give Mauritian investors cost-efficient and simple exposure to 40 of the best performing South African companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Another objective of the SEM is to attract international companies from other regions of the world via the listing of new international ETF’s.

As for Gilbert Gnany, the SEM has played an important role in the promotion of investor protection and good corporate governance practices, notably through the issuance of listing rules and disclosure standards and the monitoring of compliance thereof.

He concluded on the note that there is a need to inculcate a well-grounded investment culture in Mauritius and pave the way for a generation of high-calibre professionals to embrace careers in financial services and join the ranks of more than 15,000 skills individuals who are presently contributing to the vibrancy of such a fast-growing pillar of the economy.

– By Marie-Lorry Coret

Image (Marie-Lorry Coret, AfricaMoney) : Team A of Port-Louis State Secondary School (SSS) emerged as the new breed of successful investors for this year’s competition, winning a cheque of Rs 150,000, which transforms the virtual sum of Rs 100,000 which it won on its stock exchange investment into real cash, as well as an exceptional bonus of Rs 50,000.

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