eBusiness Weekly
Enacy Mapakame
A bullish sentiment prevailed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) as the market registered gains for the 10th consecutive session.
Total market value for the week to Wednesday surged by 23 percent to $3,116 trillion compared to $2,532 trillion recorded in the prior week on gains were led by the market’s top cap counters.
Demand in the market’s heavies saw the ZSE Top 10 Index total value jump by 28 percent to $2,394 trillion from $1,867 trillion in the comparable week. Resultantly, its total contribution to ZSE market value also moved three percentage points to 76,8 percent from accounting for 73,7 percent of total market value in the prior week.
Biggest counter by market value, Delta’s market cap jumped by 51 percent to $848 billion during the week from $558 billion in the prior week and subsequently accounting for 27,23 percent of the ZSE total value.
Second largest counter — Econet’s market value rose 37 percent to $492 billion and accounting for 15 percent of the entire market’s total value. The telecoms giant reported revenue for the nine-month period to November 30, 2022 grew by 9 percent compared to the same period in the prior year.
The growth was largely driven by voice and data volumes which were, however, weighed down by tariffs which were below inflation.
The company has started to see growth in the proportion of US dollar denominated sales to local customers, a trend that cuts across the economy, which has become 76 percent dollarised.
Econet says continuation of this trend will help the group ease its challenges in terms of paying key suppliers.
The movement in Econet dislodged Innscor to third biggest counter accounting for 14 percent of total market value. Innscor’s total market cap jumped 8 percent to $463 billion.
At $159 billion, EcoCash’s total market value was 4 percent ahead of prior week’s level of $133 billion.
Sugar processor — Hippo jumped 22 percent in terms of market value to close the week worth $97 billion from $79 billion in the previous week.
The biggest movement was seen in African Sun which made its way into the ZSE Top 10 Index with a market cap of $62 billion, becoming the market’s 9th biggest counter. The hospitality group has announced its plans to migrate from ZSE to the US dollar denominated Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX).
However, its move into the blue chips dislodged cigarette processor — BAT which bowed out of the ZSE Top 10 Index. By the end of the week, CBZ, Axia, OK Zimbabwe and Seed Co completed the ZSE Top 10 Index worth $76 billion, $72 billion, $62 billion and $59 billion in that order.
