in the fin review, page-2

Surprise winners in market's worst year since 1994

Author: Robert Guy
Date: 31/12/2002
Words: 310
Publication: Australian Financial Review
Section: News
Page: 1
Goldminer Croesus Mining is hardly a household name for investors, but it's set to end the year as one of the sharemarket's best performers.
Out of the 200 stocks in the key S&P/ASX 200 Index, Croesus has notched up the best percentage gain, up 208 per cent, in a tough year for investors. It is joined by
Tasmanian wood products group Gunns (up 92 per cent), Kingsgate Consolidated and Oxiana Resources.
The stocks that make up the core of the portfolios of many Australians didn't fare so well, headed by Telstra, down 19 per cent, with just one trading session remaining today.
The Australian sharemarket will end the calendar year suffering its worst performance since 1994, but is still one of the better global performers. The All Ordinaries Index
isset to decline by 11.9 per cent.
While the S&P/ASX200 Index the benchmark for measuring superannuation returns has dropped 12.5 per cent so far this year, ``old economy" sectors like gold and building
materials, and defensive sectors such as gaming, utilities and some property-related stocks provided the most shelter from market volatility in 2002.
In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average will record its third successive annual fall with a 17 per cent decline. This is the first three-year losing streak since 1939-41.
``The defining feature of 2002 was negative equity market returns, itself a reflection of a weaker than expected global economic recovery, and a third year of global bear
markets," said the equity strategist at Morgan Stanley, Malcolm Wood.
Investors who thought they could shelter in blue chips suffered a rude awakening as former market darlings such as Brambles, CSL, Coles Myer and Lend Lease joined the
remains of the tech wreck at the bottom of the performance tables after profit warnings and lacklustre earnings growth.