In the last month of the competition, Gauteng schools continue to display their dominance in the 2011 edition of the JSE/Liberty Investment Challenge, this time with wins in the Income and Speculator portfolios respectively. Kwadedangendlale High School and Pretoria Boys High School were joined by Maritzburg College from KwaZulu Natal who took top spot in the Equity Portfolio. 

Soweto schools are showing their mettle with Kwadedangendlale High being the second school from the area to take first position in the Income Portfolio in as many months. The “Paradise” team grew their income to an impressive R16 856.53 – the highest amount in the competition so far. “I’m extremely proud of the team. They’ve been working consistently hard throughout the year and it’s great to see the results of all that hard work,” teacher and mentor Solomon Letshwenyo said. 

Team “PBHS Alpha and Omega” of Pretoria Boys High School, also first time winners, delivered a capital growth of 5.63% in the high risk Speculator Portfolio. They are led by teacher Jaydon Kelly who is thrilled with the team’s performance. “It’s good to see team coming out on top. They’ve showed steady progress from month to month. A win was only a matter of time.” he said. 

“We are nearly at the end of this year’s Investment Challenge and it is inspiring to see new teams step up at this stage of the competition. I have no doubt that it will be a healthy race to the finish. The JSE Education Department would like to congratulate all the August winners and encourage those schools that didn’t make it into this monthly winners’ list to keep working hard at protecting their investments,” says Senior General Manager, Noah Greenhill. 

All boys’ school Maritzburg College is clearly in top form in this year’s Investment Challenge. This time the “Genius Investors” team was number one in the Equity Portfolio, and achieved a capital growth of 12.7%. Their teacher Charles Coghlan said “The team has certainly found its stride. Each and every member should be very proud of this stellar performance.”

The learners in each team have been awarded R500 each for best performance in their individual portfolios. A further R500 has been awarded to their mentoring teachers and also to their schools.

According to Andrew Warren, Executive at Liberty Retail SA Marketing, “Once again we at Liberty are happy to be associated with some of the most intelligent young individuals and scholars in the country. The skills these students attain from the Investment Challenge today will no doubt come in handy in their future endeavors. Congratulations to all the August winners.”

The Investment Challenge runs until September and is open to all learners from any South African high school. Students from universities and independent colleges are also eligible to participate. Entrants have a choice of selecting one or more risk portfolios that they wish to take part in for the competition namely: Income (low risk), Equity Growth (moderate risk) and Speculator (high risk). All school entrants must be in teams of four and have to be supervised by a teacher or mentor. University teams must consist of a minimum of two members and a maximum of four.

At the end of the competition, five prizes amounting to R60 000 per portfolio will be awarded to the overall winners of the Income, Equity Growth and Speculator Portfolios; and for the Universities and Colleges, a top prize of an all expenses paid overseas trip plus R25, 000 is up for grabs. 

More information about the JSE/Liberty Investment Challenge is available from their website http://schools.jse.co.za or http://university.jse.co.za; mobisite:http://schools.jse.co.za/mobile or  http://university.jse.co.za/mobile or contact the Investment Challenge coordinators on 011 – 520 7116/ 7344/ 7168. For more tips and interactions,also check out Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/JSELiberty-Investment-Challenge/352982065154,Twitter:http://twitter.com/JSELiberty_Game

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