A bull market that has now become one of the longest in the JSE's history continued through last year, setting records in numerous areas. In one important area, however, an important turning point came in 2006.

The long period of contraction in the number of companies listed on the JSE ended. For the first time since 1998, there were more new listings than delistings on the local market.

The turn may be rather tentative. There were 31 new domestic listings and six foreign listings, with 24 delistings, taking the total number of companies listed on the local market at the end of 2006 to 401, up from 388 at the previous year-end.

Many of the newer listings are comparatively small companies. And the private equity boom is resulting in continuing delistings of big companies, such as Consol and Edcon. If measured by the number of companies on the boards, the market is considerably smaller than it was in 1998, when 669 companies were listed.

Many of the delistings over the past five years can be traced back to the previous bull market and listings boom of 1998-2000.

But the renewed interest in listing stocks on the local equity market is a positive sign, both for the efficiency of the JSE as a capital market, and for investors. John Burke, head of issuer services at the JSE, says the pipeline of potential new listings remains strong in both number and quality of expected new listings. The pipeline in early June included 15 proposed new listings on AltX, as well as a large company such as forestry products group Mondi, which is being spun off by Anglo American and is likely to appear in the JSE's top 40. "The listings criteria are much harsher than they were in the last listings boom," says Burke. "If you compare those companies with the quality of companies being listed today it is chalk and cheese."

The number of securities listed, at 1 047 at year-end, has risen by 22% since 2002. Market liquidity has risen from 35,4% in 2003 to 41,6% for calendar 2006. For the four months to the end of April this year, it was 39,9%.

Despite the local bull market, with the JSE all share index climbing by 270% since May 2003, the JSE has slipped in the world rankings on size. According to the World Federation of Exchanges, its ranking by market capitalisation, in US dollars, has declined from 15 in 2004 to 19 at the end of last year. That partly reflects depreciation of the rand. Based on US$ market turnover, a more important figure for many market participants such as stockbrokers, the JSE has held its 21st ranking for several years.

The new listings of 2006 vary greatly. Many are smaller companies that were floated on the new AltX market. Some joined the market as relatively smaller counters but have grown quickly in value. Junior mining stocks have been among the most successful of the new listings. The platinum counters stand out among these.

Eland Platinum, a counter brought to the market by veteran mining entrepreneur Loucas Pouroulis, has been the outstanding performer. Aside from the high metal prices and weakness in the rand, Eland's share has been favourably rerated as the company has moved from being a pure exploration operation to becoming a producer as well. In only 14 months since the listing, its market cap has grown from just less than R1,5bn to more than R8bn, moving the share firmly into the JSE's medium-cap sector.

Jubilee Platinum and Anooraq Resources also had successful market debuts. Both have almost doubled in market value since listing late in 2006.

One of the larger new mining listings grew out of the restructuring of Kumba. Its iron ore mining activities were spun off into a new listed company, Kumba Iron Ore. The stock previously listed as Kumba changed its name to Exxaro Resources, and produces products such as coal and mineral sands. Both companies have performed well since being listed separately.

The listing of the JSE itself represented one of the most significant milestones in the transformation of the market and its related operations over more than a decade.

After the "big bang" in November 1995, the changes that followed included demutualisation of the exchange, corporate membership, electronic trading, and principal trading. These events laid the foundation for the process that followed logically in June last year, when the JSE listed its own shares, as several international exchanges had done already.

With bull market conditions for capital markets, the counter proved popular among investors.

Madison Property Fund Managers was another interesting listing, timed to take advantage of a surge of investor interest in the real estate sector. This stock is unusual as it mainly offers an investment in a management company rather than a portfolio of assets. Its management team includes highly regarded individuals, such as Marc Wainer and Wolf Cesman, as well as Michael Flax, who was brought into the team through a takeover of Spearhead Property Holdings, whose share was delisted in December.

Another listing that attracted much interest from investors because of the individuals involved was Afrocentric Investment. This was launched as a black economic empowerment investment company, but backers included respected directors such as SABMiller chairman Meyer Kahn and Netcare chairman Michael Sacks.

The delistings of 2006 were also diverse in type and size. Probably the largest of these in terms of assets was Venfin, the investment holding company spun off from Rembrandt group, in 1999. It sold its largest asset, a stake in mobile phone operator Vodacom, to the UK-based Vodafone and then delisted the company holding the remaining assets.

The voluntary exit of Gencor was a historic event. In the 1980s and for much of the 1990s, this was the second-largest of SA's mining houses, after Anglo American. Through a series of large deals and unbundlings, its assets ended up in the fold of BHP Billiton, and some, such as Impala Platinum and Sappi, were listed separately.

Among other delistings were several survivors from the last listings boom. These included IT companies FrontRange, Elexir Technology (through a reverse listing), Prism Holdings and Idion Technology.

Some delistings followed acquisitions that allowed investors to relinquish their stakes for an acceptable price or to have the option of moving into a larger and stronger group. African Life, an assurance company that was focused on the low-income sector, was one such case. Its operations were acquired by Sanlam.

Rights issues, which historically were a common method used by listed companies when raising capital, continue to be rare on the JSE. With interest rates still relatively low and corporate balance sheets often underborrowed, companies usually prefer to raise debt rather than equity funding. When they do issue equity, private placings are more common and easier than rights issues. Only seven rights issues were held last year, raising R955m, a small part of the total equity capital of R87,46bn raised on the JSE.

This total was more than double the R41,8bn raised only two years earlier. More than half (R49bn) was raised through equity issues during acquisitions of assets.