Slowly but surely, we are leaving the dumpster fire that was 2018 behind.

For some of South Africa’s best-known companies, though, the woes have followed them, and the first quarter is proving less than fruitful.

Late last week, the country’s biggest medicine company, Aspen, went into a tailspin meltdown, with almost a third of the company’s value wiped out on Friday alone.

There has been something of a bounce back, but the stock price graph for the past seven days (accurate as of 9:15AM) is ugly viewing:

They’re not topping the list of the worst-performing stocks on the JSE’s benchmark index, though, with that dubious honour going to sugar producer Tongaat Hulett Ltd.

Here’s more from BusinessTech:

While property and construction have suffered some of the worst declines this year, the malaise isn’t limited to those industries.

From technology to telecommunications, retailers, consumer goods, agriculture, education and financial services, South African companies are battling with crippling unemployment levels, plummeting business confidence, instances of corporate malfeasance and a lifeless economy that expanded just 0.8% last year…

South Africa’s economy is forecast to expand 1.7% this year, according to the central bank and National Treasury, but that figure was produced before higher-than-estimated tariff increases were announced for cash-strapped power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.

Sheesh, Tongaat Hulett has taken a serious beating:

If you want to see what losing over 70% of your stock price in around two and a half months looks like, here’s the Tongaat graph year-to-date (accurate as of 9:08AM):

You may think this has little or nothing to do with your life, but you may find that your pension, or retirement annuity fund, or investments, are tied up in these companies, or others that have taken a knock.

Which leaves us with this:

[source:businesstech]