By Fungai Nyaungwa
The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) recorded gains for the ninth week in a row during the week ended May 24.
Total market capitalisation rose 10.62% to close the week at $21,030,196,647 from last week’s $19,011,308,157 as buyer dominance continued, following the sharp depreciation of the RTGS dollar the previous week.
All equity benchmarks were in the black: The All Share Index and The Top 10 Index were up 9.67% and 10.72% to close the week at 159.74 points and 152.24 points respectively.
The Industrial Index ended the week at 534.24 points, a 9.75% from last week.
Mining counters advanced 1.18% to 191.87 points on the back of a 1.65% gain in RioZim Limited. Year to date, the ZSE is up 9.23% as measured by the All Share Index.
First Capital Bank (formerly Barclays) led the risers with a 40.00% gain this week on thin volumes. Ariston Holdings, up 32.45% and Star Africa Corporation, up 30.43% also recorded significant gains during the week.
Notable losses were seen in Dairibord, shedding 15.92%, TSL Limited, down 12.31% and Turnall Limited, down 8.59%.
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Volumes activity was mainly dominated by a block deal in Turnall, where 10,056,927 shares were traded.
Cassava Smartech and Delta Corporation also contributed significantly to total volumes at 15.05% and 11.62% respectively.
A total of 45,865,567 shares changed hands during this week trading session, a 41.82% decline from the 78,837,346 shares traded during the previous week.
Total turnover was 53.15% higher this week at $59,007,340, up 53.15%. Turnover was largely driven by trades in Old Mutual which contributed 31.95% of total turnover, followed by Delta Corporation (26.74%) and Cassava Smartech (14.03%).
Among the heavyweights, Delta Corporation which started off the week at a price of $2.9496, gained 1.71% to close the week at $3.0000, with a total of 5,329,092 shares worth $15,776,355 being traded.
Econet Wireless and Cassava Smartech added 26.14% and 28.17% to close the week at $1.3860 and $1.4103 respectively, ahead of their results release this coming week. Fungible counter Old Mutual fell 3.74% this week to close at $11.7544, with 1,588,464 shares changing hands.
The Old Mutual Implied Rate closed the week at 7.8604, up from 7.4119 recorded last week.
As the RTGS dollar continues to weaken both on the official interbank market and the parallel market and given the weak inflation outlook, we continue to see interest on the local bourse as investors flee from negative real returns from monetary assets en masse.
As of now, the stock market appears to be an alternative store of value.
As such, we anticipate that demand will persist, particularly in the top-tier and middle-tier counters, driving prices upwards.
Akribos Research
