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The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange’s Mining Index fell 4.6 percent because some investors are wary of a new law that could force companies to transfer 51 percent of their shares to black Zimbabweans, Kingdom Stock Brokers Ltd. said

The measure declined to 197.47 at the close in the southern African nation’s capital, Harare, from 207.01 yesterday, e- mailed data from the exchange show. Shares in Bindura Nickel Corp. and RioZim Ltd. retreated.

“There’s some nervousness about the indigenization program in the mining sector, which has considerable foreign ownership and is capital-intensive and long-term,” Kudzai Gambinga, a trader with Kingdom, said in a phone interview from Harare today. “Investors are still trying to get details on how the empowerment and indigenization law will affect mine ownership.”

Zimbabwe passed its Indigenization and Empowerment Act into law Feb. 5. The law doesn’t offer a clear mechanism for the transferring of shares to black Zimbabweans, saying only that it must be completed within five years. The act affects all companies with assets worth over $500,000.

The 75-member ZSE Industrial Index climbed 0.6 percent by the close of trade today. (Bloomberg)

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