A Jo-Burg - Lusaka Link?

The Zambia Daily Mail reports that the Lusaka Stock Exchange is looking for funds to facilitate a link between it and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange by 2008. Such a link would allow investors to trade in both Zambian and South African companies via the same platform. Zambia hopes such a move would boost foreign investment in the country.

It would seem logical that this would be the case. But that isn't quite how things worked when the Namibian Stock Exchange (NSE) began trading through the JSE system back in 1998. Instead of attracting foreign investors, Namibia actually suffers capital flight. Many Namibians forsake NSE-listed stocks in favor of South African ones, and South Africans have been slow to pile into the handful of Namibian companies.

This phenomenon should gradually disappear as the younger exchanges grow and develop.

I, for one, can't wait to see the two exchanges integrate. Access to three markets via one broker would eliminate considerable inconvenience and cost.