Delta financials likely to determine ZSE direction this week

BEVERAGE maker Delta will report its financials on Wednesday and its performance is likely to guide the direction of the equities market this week.Delta is one of the biggest companies by market capitalisation on the local bourse.

Analysts said they expected the company to report some growth in profitability and margins, as well as to declare a healthy dividend.

Barclays is also expected to give a trading update at its Annual General Meeting on Thursday, but analysts said they did not expect that to bring an impetus to the share price.

They noted that demand in Innscor seemed to be solid, and its price was expected to be pushed towards 70 cents having closed last week at 67,02 cents.

Econet, up 6,38 percent last week seems to have already lost steam post FY2014 results, making chances of a price re-rating look unlikely.
Last week the equities market was relatively positive. By close of the week on Friday, the main Industrials Index was up 1,71 percent to 176,55 points, although the Mining Index was 2.06 percent weaker at 29.03 points. The week started on a positive note recording gains on the first three trading days before weakening on the last two days.

The weakening, analysts noted, had nothing to do with change in fundamentals but was likely to be on the back of profit taking, especially after the 10-day positive run.

Turnover for the week was also very healthy, having gained 85,01 percent to $11.06 million.

Stocks that traded the bulk of the funds were the usual ones, Delta $4.6 million, Econet $4.2 million and BAT $0.54 million. Innscor traded a fair share too, at $0.33 million.

Stocks that supported the positive trend were DZHL which only gained towards the week end. The dairy products manufacturer put on 11,23 percent to close at 9.01 cents. African Sun added eight percent to 2.7 cents although trading was largely mixed throughout the week. Hunyani was, however, the top riser gaining 65,28 percent to close at 2 cents. There was also some positive interest in Star Africa and Pioneer with the stocks picking up 21,42 percent and 16,66 percent to close at 0.85 cents and seven cents.