eBusiness Weekly
Enacy Mapakame
Equities on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) continued on a free-fall as it slid for the seventh consecutive session by end of Wednesday trade weighed down by losses in big cap counters.
Week on week, total market value eased 4 percent to $485 billion reflecting the losses seen across the board. The primary indicator, the ZSE All Share Index eased 4 percent to 4 160 points from 4 362 points recorded in the previous week.
The market’s heavies, the ZSE Top 10 Index went down by 6 percent to 2 361 points as the top cap counters succumbed to selling pressure.
At 2 704 points, the ZSE Top 15 Index lost 5 percent of value from the comparable week’s 2 867 points.
The Medium Cap eased 2 percent to 10 201 points while the Small Cap fell 1 percent to 46 853 points.
Weighing down the market were losses in Dairibord that eased 22 percent to $10,85 from $13,97.
Clothing retailer , Edgars eased 16 percent to $2,51 while sugar processor, Hippo also fell by 16 percent to $2,51.
At $1,60, agriculture concern, Ariston fell 15 percent while Simbisa fell 14,7 percent to $1,30 wrapping the week’s top five fallers. Other losses were recorded in diversified industrial conglomerate Innscor, which went down 12 percent to $58,78.
The duo of ZHL and diversified hospitality group – Meikles fell 8 percent each to $2,10 and $$41,84 respectively.
Other heavy caps that weighed down the market were Delta which gave up 9 percent to $40,88 while Cassava and Econet lost 7 percent each to $12,48 and $19 in that order.
Mitigating losses were gains recorded in banking group, NNB which rise 33 percent to $12,29 followed by sura producer Star Africa which put on 16 percent to 52,62 cents. At $19,51, insurance firm- FML was 12 percent firmer compared to previous week.
Hospitality group, RTG rose 9 percent to $2,10 from $1,92 as the group gears to capitalize on the anticipated boom in tourism sector while financial services group, CBZ wrapped up the week’s top five gainers with a 6 percent increase to $74,41.
Other gains were recorded in Nampak which put on 5 percent to $8,99 while the duo of Bindura and Mashonaland Holdings rose by 4 percent each to settle at $5 and $1,89 respectively. Media group, Zimpapers advanced 2 percent to $1,79 wrapping the week’s risers.
Resources group, RioZim remained flat at $20,40 after reporting 2020 gold production went down 27 percent following constraints at its flagship mine Can & Motor. The group is however forging ahead with its solar project and now in the process of selecting an engineering, procuring and construction (EPC) contractor for its 178 megawatt solar project.
BAT and Cafca remained flat at $799 and $120 respectively. Also maintaining prior week levels were Lafarge at $50, Natfoods at $316, NTS at $10 while GetBucks also stagnated at 40 cents after reporting a net loss of $45 million for the year to December 2020 on the back of net monetary loss of $29 million.
