eBusiness Weekly
Enacy Mapakame
A bullish sentiment continued to prevail on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange with gains led by the market’s top capitalised counters that have maintained a fine run since beginning of the year.
Four of the benchmark indices closed the week to Wednesday in the positive. The primary indicator, the ZSE All Share Index, jumped 4,1 percent to close at 11 687 points from 11 217 points recorded in the previous week.
The blue chips, the ZSE Top 10 Index paced the fastest as it advanced 5 percent to 7 514 points while the ZSE Top 15 Index increased 4,2 percent to 8 258. On a year to date basis, the ZSE Top 10 Index has led gains with a 10 percent increase followed by the ZSE Top 15 Index which risen by 9 percent.
At 20 931 points, the Medium Cap was 1 percent above prior week level while the Small Cap was the only index to close in the negative with a 6 percent decline to 371 168 points.
Total market value rose by 3,9 percent to $1,4 trillion spurred by gains in the blue chips.
Headlining risers for the week was Zeco, which doubled to 2 cents followed by sugar processor — starafrica which trailed with a 34 percent gain to $1,73.
Food and dairy processor, Dairibord, rose 21 percent to $37,55. At $54,90, Cassava rose 20 percent compared to $45,52 the previous week. Cassava announced its proposed name change to EcoCash Holdings Zimbabwe Limited will be effective next month after obtaining a change of name certificate following completion of filing procedures with the Registrar of Companies.
The company expects to obtain the certificate on or before February 24, 2022, according to a circular by the group.
Fast food firm, Simbisa wrapped the week’s top five risers for the week with a 19 percent increase to $122,56.
Other gains were recorded in financial services group, ZBFH, which rose by 13 percent to $79,37 while resources group RioZim put on 12 percent to $45.
On the other side, the GB Holdings was the biggest laggard after it gave up 17 percent to $1,79 while the duo of TSL and NTS lost 16 percent each to $75,24 and $5,04 respectively.
Clothing retailer Edgars eased 14 percent to $4,26 while Fidelity wrapped the week’s top five fallers with a 9 percent decline to $14,05.
Other losses were seen in banking firm CBZ which went down 8 percent to $65. The banking group, the largest by assets and deposits was the only counter to close the year 2021 in the negative with a 11 percent decline.
Unifreight also went down by 8 percent to $26,08. Clothing retailer, Truworths fell 6 percent to $2,14 while Masimba eased 3 percent to $122,56.
BAT, Cafca and Hippo remained flat at $3 090, $170 and $2 600. Also remaining unchanged was Lafarge and National Foods which closed the week at $82 and $1 386 respectively. The VFEX was muted by end of Wednesday with Bindura closing pegged at US6 cents while Seed Co International was US28,42 cents.
Padenga remained unchanged at US21 cents while Caledonia also remained flat at US$13 week on week as the group reported record gold production for its Blanket Mine for 2021.
