By Fungai Nyaungwa
The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) climbed significantly during the week ended June 14 2019, on rising demand across the board. The market recorded gains for the 12th week in a row. All equity gauges traded in the positive: the All Share Index and the Industrial Index advanced a further 9.07% and 9.12% to close the week at 206.79 points and 690.67 points respectively.
The Top 10 Index was up 10.99% to 201.69 points while mining counters gained 3.11% to settle at 248.51 points, a year-on-year high, after a strengthening in the price of Bindura Nickel Corporation by 9.45%. Year to date, the ZSE is up 41.40% as measured by the All Share Index.
Double-digit gains were recorded in 13 counters last week. Edgars Stores Limited led the risers with a 21.78% gain, followed by MedTech Holdings, up 21.43%. Another significant gain was seen in Padenga Holdings which recorded gains of 20.77% to close at $2.1135. Padenga management last week announced that they are putting final touches to an acquisition of an exporting company which is expected to generate value for shareholders. No losses were recorded during the week.
Activity on the local bourse was rather subdued this week. Volumes activity was spread out across a number of counters, but was largely dominated by trades in Zimre Property Investments which contributed 13.62% of total volumes. A total of 31,859,330 shares changed hands during this week’s trading session, a 56.86% decline from the 73,855,545 shares traded last week.
Total turnover at $36,216,222 was a 48.08% decline from last week. Turnover was largely driven by activity in Old Mutual which contributed 32.76%, followed by Delta Corporation (19.26%) and SeedCo Limited (12.42%).
Among the heavyweights, Delta Corporation gained 1.58% this week to close at a price of $3.6550, with a total of 1,929,100 shares worth $6,973,647 being traded. The share prices of Cassava Smartech and Econet Wireless Zimbabwe advanced 20.08% and 20.05% to close at $2.0428 and $2.0405 respectively. Innscor Africa ended the week 4.47% higher at $2.3631. Fungible counter Old Mutual strengthened 6.79% to $14.4169, while another fungible counter PPC Limited edged up 3.09% to $2.3479. The Old Mutual Implied Rate (OMIR) closed the week at 9.4465, lower than the 10.0053 recorded last week.
Demand is expected to persist in the coming week, especially in the top-tier and mid-cap counters. But in the absence of sellers, this is expected to push prices up. As such, we expect the market to trade higher in the coming week on subdued volumes. — Akribos Research
