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Enacy Mapakame
Investors on the Zimbabwe Stock Exange (ZSE), gained over $30 billion last week as bulls continued to charge unabated. This saw all key indicators close the week to Wednesday pointing upwards on firming demand.
During the same week, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) introduced new $10 and $20 notes to the market, which triggered a spike in foreign currency exchange rate on the illegal parallel market.
During the week under review, the primary indicator the ZSE All Share Index closed pegged at 835 points, which was 43 percent above prior week.
The market’s heavies, the ZSE Top 10 Index, rose 39 percent to settle at 669 points while the ZSE Top 15 Index was 40 percent above prior week level to close pegged at 688 points.
At 1 213 points, the Mid Caps was 49 percent above prior week. The Small Caps paced the fastest putting on 56 percent to 3 349 as it further extended year to date gains to 632 percent.
Total market value jumped 43 percent to record high of $107 billion, from $75 billion recorded in the prior week.
Headlining risers for the week was MedTech which rose 176 percent to 16,75 cents followed by financial services group ZB which put on 107 percent to $2,90 compared to $1,40 recorded last week.
Peers CBZ doubled in value to close the week pegged at $5,50.
The duo of property firms, Dawn and Mashonaland Holdings rose 97 percent to 17,79 cents and 93 percent to 57,6 cents respectively wrapping the week’s top five risers.
As companies continue to feel the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic, Mashonaland Holdings indicated a sharp decline in rental collections for the month of April to 70 percent from an average of 95 percent as its tenants were affected by lockdown and not present in offices.
Capacity utilisation across the economy has also reduced to the pandemic induced lockdown making rent reviews more difficult as the tenants’ rent paying capacity continues to erode.
Other gains were recorded in resources group, Bindura which ticked 90 percent to 99,75 cents while peers, RioZim advanced 78 percent to $12.
At $1,08, agriculture concern — Ariston was 86 percent above prior week.
Sugar processor, StarAfrica put on 77 percent to 17 while insurance group ZHL 70 percent to 90 cents.
Contractors- Masimba rose 49 percent to 74,9 cents after reporting an inflation adjusted turnover increase of 86 percent for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 from the comparative period on the back of improved order book mix and productivity efficiencies across the projects.
At 7,2 cents, General Beltings was 44 percent above prior week as volumes for the first quarter to March 31, 2020 rose 38 percent compared to same period last year due to improved activity at the rubber division dominated by carried over orders as at 31 December 2019 prior year end.
The rubber division continued to register a good performance despite the challenging business environment.
The market’s biggest company by capitalization, Cassava rose 30 percent to $5,59.
There were no fallers in the week while Addis stagnated at $7,20. Also maintaining prior week level were Fidelity, GetBucks, NTS and Unifreight that closed pegged at 19,45 cents, 12 cents, 3,1 cents and 10,08 cents in that order.
Bongani Ndlovu