daniel chigunwe
Business Writer
Zimbabwe was the top loser among eight sub-Saharan African (SSA) stock markets, which had negative US dollar returns in May 2022, latest report shows.
African Financials Top 30 Companies show that in US dollars, SSA (excluding South Africa’s) was down 2.8 percent in May 2022 but up 4.2 percent year to date.
Eight of SSA ex SA’s fourteen stock markets have risen year to date.
On the downside, it was Zimbabwe, which fell 32.8 percent, followed by Kenya at 14.9 percent and Ghana completed the top three losers at 8.1 percent.
“High Sharpe ratios and low standard deviation of returns feature Botswana, Tanzania and Malawi,” reads the report.
However, Zimbabwe takes the top spot among the eight sub-Saharan African (SSA) stock markets which had year-to-date US dollar returns.
This comes as there are few Zimbabwean dollar assets and exchange rate movements are forcing investors to dispose of their money quickly or put it on the local bourse as a way to hedge against inflation.
On the other hand, Econet Wireless was named among companies with the highest price-to-earnings ratio. “47.3x with a share price at $238.42.”
Meanwhile, the mainstream ZSE All Share Index fell 1.83 percent to close at 21,073.30 points on Friday, extending losses for the ninth session.
CBZ led the gainers’ chart, adding 11.94 percent to close at $143.00 and left its market capitalisation at $982.74 billion.
On the contrary, Ecocash recorded the highest loss, shedding 11.49 percent to $77.42 while OK Zimbabwe trailed with a loss of 8.13 percent to close at $37.93. Innscor dipped by 7.51 percent to close at $434.38. As a result, the Top 10 Index suffered the most as it succumbed 2.48 percent to close at 13,178.29 points.
The Medium Cap Index was off 0.29 percent to close at 40,627.22 points. ZHL and Tanganda which lost 9.62 percent and 1.19 percent to end at $5.00 and $228.94 respectively.
However, gains were recorded in Dairibord, Edgars and Starafrica which gained 11.11 percent, 8.87 percent and 2.91 percent to finish at $50.00, $5.00 and $1.85 in that order.
The Small Cap Index was the only gainer, with 3.18 percent to 499,070.29 underpinned by gains in media group Zimpapers. The counter climbed 10 percent to close at 5.50 percent.
Turover declined 75.28 percent to $675.56 million. With regards to the value of traded stocks, Delta took the lead of the top 5 performers, flanked by Simbisa, Econet, Ecocash and Innscor.
Market capitalization was down 1.71 percent to $2.66 trillion.
On ETFs, the OM ZSE Top-10 was off 6.18 percent to close at $10.3204. Others were virtually flat.
Bongani Ndlovu