eBusiness Weekly
Bulls charged on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) this week with the mainstream All Share index closing 27,51 percent higher to 191,47 level, as the market rallied with investors looking for a safe haven for the depreciating local currency.
The local currency has continued to weaken since its introduction and is now trading at a ratio of RTGS$5,22 to US$1 which is weaker than the start rate of RTGS$2,5 to US$1.
Investors have also been wary of inflation which spiralled to 75,8 percent in April and in the process eroding the purchasing power.
Total market capitalisation jumped 31,92 percent to close the week at $25,4 million from $19,2 million. Smart tech firm Cassava emerged as the most valued company by capitalisation standing at $5,1 billion ahead of Econet which stood as the second runner with an $4,8 billion value.
The industrial index gained 27,61 percentage points to lend at 640,29 from 501,77 last week, while the mining index grew 11.09 percent to close the week under review at 216, 65 from 195. 02
At the close of trading on Wednesday, Cassava headlined the risers going up 66 percent to trade at 199cents from 119cents as investors cheered the smart tech group`s recent introduction of the Econet micro- services, which allows self-services to its customers in order to improve customer experience and ease of doing business.
Other notable risers were Econet gaining 52,66 percent to trade at 188,29 cents from 123, 34 cents. Diversified financial services group, ZHL advanced 44 percent to close at 3,24 cents, the jump in share price comes as the company has been trading on a cautionary statement as it is involved in negotiations for a potential transaction at subsidiary level.
In its last set of results ZHL reported a jump of 17 percent in gross premium written to $32 million during the period December 31, 2018 although its profit for the period lowered 39 percent to lend at $3,55 million. FBC and CBZ were also among the top five risers gaining 40 and 36 percent each.
The market was, however, not short of fallers with Dairibord Zimbabwe the week’s biggest looser down 15,48 percent to 16,05 cents from 18,99. Analysts are, however, waiting to hear the company`s performance thus far as the dairy products manufacture will be having its annual general meeting today.
Zimpapers and NMB where the market`s other losers having lost 11, 1 percent and 5, 10 percent respectively. The decline in NMB`s share price comes as the banking group recently announced that its operational income for the four months to April was 22,7 percent although they remain optimistic to close the gap by the second quarter of the year.
The group’s chief executive officer Benefit Washaya blamed subdued performance on challenges being faced in the market chief among them being adaptation of a wait and see approach at the beginning of the year in anticipation of the monitory policy.
He also said the other reason was mostly on announcement of a currency framework which saw the banking sector failing to adjust to conditions until April 2019.
