Since listing in on itself, the JSE has been full of paradoxes. Its share price and rating shouldn't have been especially exciting, given that - on the face of it - the JSE is dependent on market activity. But it has. Considering that the JSE is at the tip of Africa, outsiders might be forgiven for thinking that it would be using old fashioned technology and have less than perfect governance. But neither is the case. Its technology is leading edge, it has never experienced a failed trade and its surveillance is among the best in the world.

When many countries around the world were banning "short-selling" of financial shares at the height of the financial markets meltdown last year, the JSE didn't have to - the safeguards it has installed to cope with the technical aspects of short-selling coped admirably.

All this, of course, is due to one man - CEO Russell Loubser. Over a decade ago, he was told by many people not to spend too much money on transforming the JSE - that a "Second-World" type of exchange would be adequate for the kind of volumes experienced in Africa. But Loubser was having none of it. He has constructed a world-class exchange and he shows no signs of wishing to stop now.

On the face of it, 2008 should have been a bad year for the JSE - market activity was adversely affected by the events on global markets and net new listings were flat. But, as with the other paradoxes, it wasn't. The JSE experienced a record year - again. The huge volatility experienced on world markets lapped over to the JSE, resulting in some record volume days on the exchange, even though stock market values fell sharply as a result of the global sell-off.

The JSE's financial performance was nothing short of miraculous last year, considering the background against which it was achieved. Foreigners were net sellers of SA securities in 2008, a marked reversal of their significant net buying in the preceding three years. There was a net foreign disinvestment of R54bn in 2008 and the JSE all share index almost halved between its peak of 33 233 in May and its trough of 17 414 in November.

One of the keys to the JSE's resilience was its diversified income streams. Though equities trading fees accounted for 27% of income last year, the rest of the JSE's income came from seven other sources.

In fact, the only area of its business where income fell was new listings, where income was down 20%. There were 23 new listings last year, down sharply on the previous year's 63. But on the bright side, one of the spinoffs from the Richemont/Remgro unbundling was a secondary listing on the JSE for British American Tobacco (BAT). BAT was, until recently, the largest listing on the JSE.

The main factor contributing to the JSE's success last year was the huge increase in equities trading fees, which rose by 38%, mainly due to the turbulence on global markets. And the JSE even managed to cut its trading fees by 7,5% in the middle of last year, before the global meltdown occurred.

Technology services's income rose by 31%, very much in line with the equities trading fees. The net effect was an income statement that Loubser was visibly impressed to present to the audience at the JSE's results presentation in early March 2009. On a 22% rise in income, earnings rose a staggering 37% to R374m. The dividend was increased by 48% to 192c.

2009 is likely to be even tougher than 2008. But, typically, that doesn't faze Loubser. He intends to respond by:

• Emphasising the JSE's attractiveness relative to other emerging markets;

• Working to improve the JSE's own efficiency;

• Offering a world-class service to clients at a competitive price;

• Keeping a close eye on costs;

• Continuing to build a sustainable business model;

• Focusing on new strategic initiatives that strengthen business;

• Offering clients better services and more efficiency; and

• Continued focus on new products.

One factor going in the JSE's favour this year, if sustained, is that foreigners have been net buyers of SA equities since the beginning of this year.

This year the Bond Exchange of SA (Besa) will be fully integrated into the JSE and the JSE will also make further concerted efforts to persuade more African and overseas companies to list on the exchange. The JSE would like to take a strategic stake in the Mauritian Stock Exchange, even though the Mauritian Financial Services Commission is apparently opposed to the deal.

The net effect of two years of huge earnings growth is that the JSE's p:e ratio has declined from a highly rarefied 93 times in late 2007 to the current, very reasonable 10,6 times. At these attractive levels, it would be a brave person indeed who would bet against Loubser continuing to achieve record results in the future.