eBusiness Weekly
Business Writer
The bullish run on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange persisted on Wednesday, with the market indicators increasing further by 0.10 percent.
At close, the ZSE All Share Index, thus, gained further to 15,204.84 points as opposed to its previous close of 15,189.23 points.
Caledonia Mining Corporation, which has a secondary listing on the foreign currency denominated Victoria Falls Stock Exchange, announced that it acquired more gold exploration property in Motapa Mining company.
In a statement released yesterday the company said; “Caledonia is pleased to announce that it has purchased Motapa Mining Company UK Limited, the parent company of a Zimbabwe subsidiary, which holds a registered mining lease over the Motapa gold exploration property in Southern Zimbabwe.”
The purchase was made from Bulawayo Mining Company Limited, a privately owned UK company and according to the statement, the purchase price is undisclosed but is below the regulatory disclosure threshold.
Mark Learmonth, Caledonia’s chief executive (CEO), said, “We are pleased to have concluded the purchase of Motapa. Given its large scale, excellent geological prospectivity and its strategic location adjacent to Bilboes, Motapa was a high priority acquisition for Caledonia. We look forward to developing an exploration programme for Motapa as we target a large-scale gold belt surrounding the Bilboes project.”
Caledonia said it considers Motapa to be highly prospective and strategically important to its growth ambitions in the country in terms of both location and scale.
The bears’ camp took dominance over the market breadth with nine counters in the gainers’ chart pitted against 11 counters in the losers’ chart. The Top 10 Index was flat at 8,945.57 points.
First Capital Bank gained 12.96 percent to become the best performing stock in the session, flanked by Masimba, Nampak, RTG and NMB as they populated the top five gainers’ chart.
The Medium Cap Index rose 0.37 percent to close at 33,659.56 points.
From the rear of the chart, Zimpapers, Mash Holdings, Edgars, African Sun and Axia populated the top five losers’ chart.
The Small Cap Index was down 1.06 percent to end at 525,904.22 points.
A total of 1.01 million shares worth $129.55 million were traded in 232 trades. The market capitalisation stood at $1.84 trillion.
On the derivatives market, the Datvest ETF was up 0.10 percent to $1.7500 while the Morgan & Co Multi-Sector gained 3.14 percent to settle at $21.6585. The OM ZSE Top-10 ETF was up 2 percent to $5.3219.
The Cass Saddle Agric ETF was flat at $2.0000.
The Morgan & Co Made in Zim eased 7.02 percent to end at $1.0600.
Oil prices rose more than 1 percent on Wednesday after industry data showed a surprise drop in US crude inventories, suggesting demand is holding up despite steep interest-rate hikes dampening global growth.
Brent crude futures rose US$1.13, or 1,2 percent, to US$95.78 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose US$1.26, or 1,4 percent, to US$89.63 a barrel.
Gold prices rose on Wednesday on a softer dollar, though investors refrained from placing big bets ahead of an important US Federal Reserve policy statement that could provide cues on its pace of interest-rate hikes.
Spot gold was up 0,2 percent at US$1 650.62 per ounce, while US gold futures gained 0,3 percent to US$1 653.80.
Spot silver rose 0,1 percent to US$19.68 per ounce, having hit a three-week peak on Tuesday.
Platinum gained 0,9 percent to US$951.50 and palladium climbed 1,4 percent to US$1 905.99.
