eBusiness Weekly
Enacy Mapakame
The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) upsurge continued last week as investors search for safe haven. In the week to Wednesday, the market’s key indicators closed in the black as value for local currency declined.
During the week under review, the local RTGS$ shed 33 percent of value to trade at $4,70 against the greenback on the official interbank market while it skyrocketed to over 600 percent on the illegal black market.
The economy has for years been battling foreign currency shortages that have resulted in production challenges with companies struggling to acquire essential raw materials. The commencement of the tobacco selling season was expected to help improve foreign currency inflows and increase liquidity in the country.
But indications are that farmers are holding on to their product in protest over low prices. Official figures from the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB) show that farmers have to date sold 101 million kilogrammes of the golden leaf to the tune of US$184 million, reflecting negative variances between volumes sold since the start of the marketing season in March and deliveries over the same period last year.
The volumes sold thus far this year are 20 percent lower than the 107 million kilogrammes of flue-cured tobacco worth US$361 million that had been sold by farmers during the same period prior year.
Stocks, however, remained bullish in the week under review. The primary ZSE All Share Index put on 4,83 percent to 150,16 points while the ZSE Top 10 paced the fastest with a 5,09 percent gain to close settled at 142,38 points.
The Industrials Index broke the 500 mark after putting on 4,83 percent to settle at 501 points from prior week’s 478,63 points.
At 195,02, the Mining Index was 2,84 percent above last week. Total market value added 3,47 percent to close the week pegged at $19,2 billion driven by gains across board.
Hospitality group, Rainbow Tourism Group headlined risers for the week with a 34 percent increase to 8,12 cents while sugar processor, Star Africa advanced 30,43 percent to close at 1,5 cents.
Financial services firm, GetBucks was 20 percent firmer to 9,6 cents from prior week’s 8 cents. At 3,62 cents, agriculture concern — Ariston was 19,87 percent above prior week while Econet capped the week’s top five risers with an 18 percent jump to $1,23.
Financial services firm, FCB, ticked 17,2 percent to 5,86 cents while MedTech and Meikles both rose by 16,67 percent each to close at 0,28 cents and 70 cents respectively.
Other gains were recorded in regional cement maker PPC that gained by 13,7 percent to $1,72 from prior week’s $1,51. Padenga was also on
the upside after adding 10,39 percent to $1,30 as the crocodile breeder indicated it is still considering a transaction that will see it diversify and grow its exports to complement the traditional crocodile skins and meat business, which already is mainly export centric.
Second biggest company by market capitalisation, Cassava rose 8,79 percent to $1,19. In the week under review, the smart tech group introduced the Econet micro- services, which allows self-services to its customers in order to improve customer experience and ease of doing business.
The market was not short of bears. Industrial holdings group, TSL fell the hardest after giving up 15,22 percent to 55 cents from prior week’s 64,87 cents. Logistics group, Unifreight fell 8,09 percent to 10,11 cents while ZBFH was 7 percent weaker to 38 cents.
Cigarette manufacturer, BAT went down by a marginal 1,37 percent to $30,50 remaining the market’s most expensive stock.
Seed Co wrapped up the week’s top five fallers with a 1,21 percent decline to $1,43.
Masimba Holdings and Dairibord added to the list of bad performers after declining by 1,12 percent to 8,8 cents and 0,52 percent to 18,99 cents respectively.
On the resources side, the two active counters, Bindura and RioZim gained by 6,67 percent to 6,4 cents and 1,67 percent to $1,77 in that order. The other resources counters, Hwange and Falgold remain suspended.
Maintaining prior week levels were Dawn, Edgars, Fidelity and FMP that closed at 2,8 cents, 13,5 cents, 8,44 cents and 5,1 cents respectively. General Beltings, National Foods, Powerspeed and Proplastics also remained flat at 1,8 cents, $6,85, 16 cents and 28 cents in that order.
Also remaining unchanged were ZHL, Zimplow and ZPI that closed the week at 2,25 cents, 30,1 cents and 2,5 cents respectively.
