Since the US Fed embarked on the first round of quantitative easing, the US equity market, as measured by the S&P500, has gained over 232 per cent. The equity market in South Africa gained 236 per cent over the same period in rand terms.
However, even though foreign equity flows slowed somewhat since the taper tantrum in May 2013 and the actual tapering commencing in January 2014, the JSE has continued rising and equity valuations at about 17,3 times forward price-earnings ratio are firmly above their longterm trend.