Slight gains recorded on the ZSE

Business
The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) seesawed during the week ended July 19 2019 on mixed trading before closing slightly up.

Market Report WITH FUNGAI NYAUNGWA

The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) seesawed during the week ended July 19 2019 on mixed trading before closing slightly up.

During the week, while we expected buyer aggression to return to the local bourse after the announcement of official year-on-year inflation figures of 176%, the market surprised, either signalling a “liquidity winter” or that the market had already priced in these developments.

Total market capitalisation added $467 million (+0.98%) to close the week at $25.31 billion. All equity benchmarks ended the week in positive territory: the All Share Index and the Industrial Index were up 0.78% and 0.77% to close at 191.47 points and 638.82 points respectively.

Once more, the heavyweights were most sought after during this week’s buy-in, as indicated by the 1.26% uptick in the Top 10 Index to 183.22 points.

The Mining Index closed at 251.30 points, 0.94% higher, on a 1.32% gain in the price of RioZim Limited. Year-to-date, the market is up 30.93% as measured by the All Share Index falling behind year-to-date inflation of 94.35%.

General Beltings and Zimre Holdings Limited led the risers, both gaining 20.00%. Retailer, Ok Zimbabwe, up 12.17% as well as construction giant, Masimba Holdings, up 10.89% also recorded significant gains during the week under review.

Edgars Stores was the biggest loser last week, shedding 20.00%, after the company’s Managing Director, Linda Masterson highlighted during the recent AGM that unit sales declined 16% during the year to May 2019. Other notable losses were seen in Art Corporation and Willdale which declined 15.79% and 12.50% respectively.

Volumes activity last week was largely dominated by a block deal in Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, which contributed 36.97% of total volumes, followed by OK Zimbabwe Limited (13.86%) and Star Africa Corporation (11.57%).

A total of 30,154,398 shares changed hands during the week’s trading session, a 1.13% decline from the 30,499,100 shares traded during the previous week.

Total turnover for the week was $38,156,970, down 4.58% from the $39,987,051 recorded last week. Turnover was largely driven by activity in Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, Delta Corporation Limited and OK Zimbabwe Limited which contributed 50.18%, 18.48% and 4.96% to total turnover respectively.

Among the heavyweights, Delta Corporation Limited shed a marginal 0.02% to $3.5094 (from $3.5100 the previous week) as 2,009,600 shares worth $7,053,104 traded.

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe advanced 3.97% while Cassava Smartech added 2.02% to close the week at $1.6838 and $1.6834 respectively. Fungible counters traded in the positive: Old Mutual was up 1.73% to $15.7500 on subdued turnover of $894,125 while PPC Limited rose 4.84% to $1.9500 on trades worth $1,783, 655.

The Old Mutual Implied Rate (OMIR) ended the week at 10.2808, up from 9.7481 last week.

Fungai Nyaungwa is an equities analyst at Akribos Securities. She can be reached on [email protected] or via telephone on 0242 301201.