value over the six months up to February 28, according to a report published by Old Mutual Asset Managers (Bermuda) Ltd.

This is compared to a decline in the index of 15.3 percent for the same period.

The company's investment manager's report said: "The trust's underweight position in technology, media and telecommunications shares contributed to its out-performance of the index by 1.7 percent during the last three months.

While the trust had held a level of gearing around ten percent over the six months, this was virtually eliminated by the end of February.

"The trust's weighting in small and mid capitalisation shares has been further increased relative to the index, given the large discounts at which many of these shares are trading relative to the large capitalisation shares.'' The report added: "Under volatile global trading conditions during the six months under review, South African equities have shown moderate gains. The All Share Index continues to be driven by the strong performance of resource shares, notably diamonds, platinum and steel. The main highlight was the unwinding by De Beers of the cross holding in Anglo American plc and the concurrent sale of the diamond business to an Anglo/Oppenheimer family led consortium.'' The manager said confidence appears to be strengthening in the South African economy after a poor start early in the year.

Gross Domestic Product growth in the fourth quarter last year reached 3.2 percent on a quarter on quarter annualised basis. Growth for the year 2000 reached 3.1 percent, up from 1.9 percent in 1999.

"Old Mutual expects economic growth for 2001 to match the 3 percent achieved in 2000,'' the report stated.