Enacy Mapakame
Losses in heavyweights dragged the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) into the red during the week to Wednesday, reversing gains achieved in the prior week.
All the benchmarks trekked southwards in the week under review. The primary indicator, the ZSE All Share Index slipped 1,54 percent to close pegged at 242,93 points while the Top 10 Index fell the heaviest with a 2,75 decline to 221,53 points.
At 809,02 points, the Industrials Index was 1,56 percent below prior week level.
The resources indicator, the Mining Index, fell a marginal 0,38 percent to 333,5 points on losses in Bindura.
Total market value eased 1,77 percent to $31,5 billion on losses recorded across board.
Brick making firm, Willdale, was the biggest casualty of the week letting go of 42 percent to close at 2,4 percent. Dairibord was 31 percent weaker to 48 cents compared to 68 cents recorded in the previous week.
Clothing retailer, Edgars retreated 29 percent to 13,46 cents. Unifreight came in 18 percent lower to 9 cents after the transport logistics group announced a resilient performance for the third quarter to September 2019, despite a challenging environment.
Alignment in business as well as consistency in fleet availability saw profit jump 966 percent to $12,8 million.
Unifreight also attributed the growth to good customer care service which also saw profitability surpassing budget by $10 million.
Art wrapped up the week’s top five fallers with a 16 percent decline to 7,2 cents.
Other losses were recorded in insurance group, FML which let go of 13 percent to 26,05 cents. Simbisa went down 10 percent to $1,37. The quick service restaurant reported revenue for FY20 first quarter ending September 30, 2019 surged 455 percent against prior year comparable period. Simbisa attributed the growth to a 676 percent year on year jump in average consumer spend although customer counts fell 28 percent.
Also on the downside, Cassava was 7 percent lower to $1,43 in a week its mobile money platform, EcoCash brought business to a standstill due to service disruptions following a system upgrade.
Insurance giant Old Mutual lost 6 percent of value to $33,95 while Econet and Delta went down 5 percent to $1,69 and 0,47 percent to $3,97 respectively.
Further losses were, however, offset by gains in MedTech, NamPak, ZHL, Truworths and Ariston topping the week’s risers in that order. Medtech put on 65 percent to 1,52 cents followed by Nampak that advanced 19 percent to 72,25 cents.
Diversified insurance group, ZHL also ticked 19 percent to 10 cents after reporting profit for the nine months to September 30, 2019 surged 2 992 percent above budget on gains from property and foreign currency revaluations following the change of functional currency.