daniel chigunwe
Enacy Mapakame
A bullish sentiment prevailed on the equities market with all benchmark indices closing the week in the positive following gains driven by the heavy caps.
The primary indicator, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) All Share Index, put on 8 percent of value to close the week to Wednesday at 15 467 points.
The market’s heavyweights, the ZSE Top 10 Index paced the fastest with a 10 percent increase to 10 297 points while the ZSE Top 15 Index followed by a 9 percent increase to 11 303 points.
The Medium Cap closed the week at 25 072 points, representing a 2 percent increase while the Small Cap marginally rose by 0,8 percent to 391 745 points.
Total market value jumped 9 percent to $1,9 trillion reflective of the gains recorded across board.
Headlining risers for the week, Unifreight put on 20 percent to close pegged at $33,60 while resources group, RioZim added 19 percent of value to $62.
Telecoms giant, Econet, rose 17 percent to $141 from $120 recorded in the previous week as it remains the biggest counter by market capitalisation.
At $243,45, Delta was 15 percent firmer after the beverages giant introduced another offering to the market — Sable Lager — as it seeks to further consolidate its market share.
Diversified industrial conglomerate, Innscor, wrapped the top five risers after it added 14 percent to close at $310,28 from prior week’s $270,33.
Other gains were seen in insurance firm, Fidelity Life which rose 12 percent to $12. The duo of Axia and retail giant, OK Zimbabwe put on 11 percent each to $66,83 and $30,14 respectively. Tanganda rose 10 percent to $85.
Quick service restaurants (QSR) group, Simbisa inched up 4 percent to $188,08 after reporting a strong performance for the half year to December 31, 2021, supported by an improved operating environment across markets.
Total revenue for the period rose 54 percent to $16,9 billion compared to $11 billion recorded during the same period in the prior year on a strong rebound in customer counts despite limitations in trading hours and other restrictions.
The market was not short of fallers, as clothing retailer, Truworths backtracked 20 percent to $1,54 followed by hospitality group, African Sun which went down 6 percent to $5,80.
Banking group, FBC fell by the same margin — 6 percent — to close at $30,01 while insurance firm, FML weakened by $18. MedTech wrapped up the week’s top five fallers with a 2 percent decline to $20.
Other losses were seen in Afdis, Ariston and Edgars that fell 1 percent each to $260, $3,34 and $5,94 respectively.
Cigarette maker, BAT remained unchanged at $3 667 while Cafca also stagnated at $170.
Also maintaining prior week level were GetBucks, Masimba and Natfoods which closed at $5, $53,20 and $1 750 in that order.
TSL was also flat at $110 as the group bemoaned the late onset of the rainy season which had a knock on effect on uptake of agriculture inputs.
Turnall and ZBFH were also unchanged at $5 and $60 respectively.
Bongani Ndlovu