- The bourse slowed-down from previous session gains of 3.7%
- Year to date gains surpassed 200% threshold
- Week to date gains at 9.15%
- Gains were spun across all indices except mining
Harare - The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) posted a marginal 1.97% increase in yesterday trades to close at 8,586.70 points, a subside from the previous five sessions gains averaging 3.7%.
The slowdown was owed to a -78% decline in demand as well as subsiding margins in blue-chips and penny stocks. Positive trajectory has lately been fueled by value chasing as the premium between formal and parallel market currency worsens.
The slowdown, also comes amid the consistent tumbling of the ZWL against the greenback on the forex auction, with the Central Bank pointing fingers at individuals for fueling parallel market activities.
Year-to-date gains surpassed the 200% threshold to close the session at 225.71% while the Small Capital Index as captured by the ZSE continued to rally at 1994.51%.
Meanwhile, trade at VFEX was in the negative with Padenga plunging by -13.67% to 25.9 cents per share after trading 637 shares.
At the end of the trade, headlining the gainers was Zimbabwe’s cigarette and tobacco producer, British American Tobacco which added 20% to $1,793.0600, followed by the largest national foods producer, National Foods which notched 19.9% to close at $753.0000.
Spirits and wines maker, African Distillers scaled up by 19.26% to $90.0000. Hotelier, African Sun buttressed the prior session gains with a further 17.91% increase to settle at $9.6224.
Construction company, Masimba Holdings closed on a firmer note on extending its previous gains by 16.35% to $53.1545, thus capping the top five gainers.
On the negative side, nickel miner, Bindura Nickel Corporation reversed its previous session gains to emerged as the worst performer on tumbling -4.85% to $5.7023. In its annual general meeting, the corporation has forecasted its annual net profit for the full year 2022 to be higher than the prior year as it expects a boost in production.
Plastics pipe manufacturer, Proplastics garnered the third spot on easing -3.43% to $30.0000 whilst technological firm, Cassava Smartech defied its prior session gains by a marginal -2.68% loss to $30.1591.
Other losses were propelled by the financial stock, Getbucks which closed lower at $8.0400 after declining by -1.95% with the sugar maker and marketer, Star Africa Corporation capping the top five laggards by countering its previous gains on dwindling -1.76% to $1.7069.
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