South African Financials "Crowding among SA Financials" Christelis

Research evidence excerpt

South African Financials "Crowding among SA Financials" Christelis

Global Research

19 June 2026ab

South African Financials Equities

South AfricaCrowding among SA Financials

Financial

Michael Christelis, FIA CFA

An update to the Crowding data source Analyst

In May 2025, the UBS Quantitative Research team updated its crowding data source. michael.christelis@ubs.com

The data remains a good overall lens for positioning in the Financials sector, at subsector +27-11-322 7320

and individual stock levels. We view crowding as an important indicator of investor Stephan Potgieter, CFA

sentiment, especially into results. For more information, please contact the Quant team Analyst

(ubs-quant-answers@ubs.com). stephan.potgieter@ubs.com

+44-20-7568 8162

SA insurers: Noticeably more crowded recently

SA insurers have seen increases in their crowding scores over the last month which

included the release of Q1 trading updates for the sector which showed resilience across

the life names ahead of the impacts of the Middle East conflict related inflation

concerns. DSY, SLM and OUT have shown meaningful increases in their crowding scores

over the last month, with SLM at its most crowded position since the data change and

now the most crowded insurer, and both it and DSY are near 1std deviation above their

12m average crowding. Only SNT has seen its crowding score decline over the last

month which we believe is likely driven by the large weather related claims warned

about in its recent trading update.

SA banks: Becoming less crowded, NED's increase a surprise to us

Ahead of the pre-close updates for the big 4 SA banks next week, we have seen a

decline in crowding scores against the backdrop of the Middle East conflict and a recent