eBusiness Weekly
Enacy Mapakame
Bulls continued to dominate trades on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE), which saw all benchmark indices close the week in the positive.
During the week to Wednesday, Small Cap recovered from two weeks of declines, pacing the fastest with a 10 percent increase to 47 007 points followed by Medium Cap which rose 9 perfect to 12 395 points.
At 5 020 points, the primary indicator ,the ZSE All Share Index was 7 percent above prior week level, reflective of the gains recorded across board.
The ZSE Top 10 Index advanced 6,38 percent to settle at 2 860 while the ZSE Top 15 Index rose 6,34 points to 3 246 points.
Total market value rose 7,6 percent to $586 billion from $544 billion recorded in the prior week.
GetBucks headlined risers for the week with a 37 percent increase to 66 cents.
The financial services firm recorded after tax profit for the quarter to March 31, 2021 fell 78 percent to $12,3 million on the back of reduced activity due to Covid induced lockdown in January.
Brick making firm, Willdale put on 31 percent to close at $1,42 from $1,08 recorded in the previous.
At $39,93, Simbisa was 30 percent above prior week. The quick service restaurant provider is banking on easing of lockdown restrictions across markets to boost its earnings performance as its third quarter revenue increased 68 percent on prior year in inflation adjusted terms and 87 percent on a year to date basis.
Group operating profit margins dropped from 17 percent in Q3 FY20 to 12 percent in Q3 FY21 as a result of the impact of lower revenue recorded in the Zimbabwe operations in January and February, against a relatively fixed cost base.
Sugar processor, Star Africa put on 27 percent to close at 69,4 cents while FCB wrapped up the week’s top five risers with a 23 percent increase to $3,09.
Other gains were seen in Mash which advanced 22 percent to $2,30. The duo of Proplastics and Afdis rose 20 percent each to $25,27 and $60 respectively.
Crocodile breeder, Padenga and ZBFH put on 17 percent each to $35,99 and $47 in that order.
Construction firm, Masimba was up 13 percent to $25 as the group’s prospects remain high on the back of a strong order book.
Its revenue for the first quarter to March 31, 2021 jumped 63 percent ahead of same period last year despite the Covid-19 induced challenges. The market was not short of fallers as financial services firms dominated the biggest laggards of the week. Insurance firm FML went down 9 percent to $20,49.
Largest banking group by assets and deposits, CBZ fell 5 percent to $85 from $90 recorded in the previous week.
At $39,99, TSL was 4 percent below prior week level. Fidelity Life eased 3 percent to $5,80 while NMB wrapped the week’s top five fallers with a 2 percent decline to $11,25.
On the resources side, both the active mining companies Bindura and RioZim rose 6 percent to $5,12 and 0,49 percent to $20,50 in that order.
Zimpapers remained flat at $1,60 while Natfoods also maintained prior week price of $318. Also remaining unchanged was BAT which closed at $749 as it remains the most expensive stock.
