ZSE big caps weigh down stock market




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Equities on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) fell last week weighed down by weakness in the market’s top cap counters.

Resultantly, all the benchmark indicators closed the week to Wednesday pointing southwards as liquidity constraints continue to subdue activity.

In May this year, the Government introduced policy measures that were meant to tame inflation and arbitrage behavior on the stock market. Since then the market is yet to recover to April levels.

During the week under review, the primary indicator, the ZSE All Share Index, eased 3 percent to 14 734 points from 15 204 points in the comparable week.

The market’s heavies, the ZSE Top 10 Index gave up 4 points to settle at 8 557 points while the ZSE Top 15 Index went down 3 percent to 9 631 points. At 33 519 points, the Medium Cap was 0,4 percent below prior week while the Small Cap eased by 1,3 percent to 518 789 from 525 904 points in the prior week.

Total market value went down 3 percent to close the week at $1,7 trillion from $1,8 trillion in the previous comparable week. On a year-to-date basis, total market value has increased by 35 percent.

The market was weighed down by losses in clothing retailer Truworths which went down 13 percent to $2,20 followed by banking firm FCB which lost 12 percent to $9,22.

At $15,06, Art was 11 percent below prior week’s level while EcoCash lost 10,5 percent of value. Property firm – FMP wrapped the week’s biggest losers with a 10,1 percent decline to $8 from $8,90 in the previous week.

Further losses were mitigated by gains in FBC, which rose 16 percent to $63 followed by seed producer Seed Co which added 9 percent of value to $90. At $32, Proplastics was 8 percent above prior week. BFCA rose 7 percent to close at $8 while Tanganda completed the week’s top five risers with a 5 percent increase to $90.

Other gains were seen in the trio of Dairibord, Lafarge and Zimplow rose by 3 percent each to $49,50, $124 and $18,36 respectively.

Turnall, ZB and NTS remained unchanged at $3,91, $114,50 and $12, respectively. Insurance firm Fidelity was also unchanged at $24 after reporting revenue for the nine months to September 30, 2022 doubled, compared to the same period last year, driven by growth in the life assurance business.

The ETFs traded mixed during the week. The Morgan and Co Made in Zim rose 4 percent to $1,11 while the Morgan and Co Multi-Sector ticked 1,5 percent to $22.

The Datvest MCS ETF backtracked 2,8 percent to $1,70 while the Old Mutual ZSE Top 10 ETF fell by a marginal 0,5 percent to $5,29. The Cass Saddle Agric ETF remained unchanged at $2.

Elsewhere on the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX) Padenga was the only counter to register a trade as it jumped 10 percent to settle at US26,94 cents on 4,036 shares in Wednesday’s session.

Bindura, Seed Co International and Caledonia remained unchanged. Caledonia reported revenue for the nine months to September 30, 2022, rose 21 percent to US$107,9 million on the back of solid gold production at its Blanket Mine.

Gold production at Blanket rose 22,2 percent to 59,726 ounces compared to the 48,872 ounces produced in the first nine months of 2021. – Herald