…as stocks begin the week on a low note
The local bourse on Monday lost 0.25%, extending bearish sentiment to three consecutive trading sessions. As a result, the market capitalisation fell by $4.17 billion to $1.81 trillion. In summary, the mainstream ZSE All Share Index eased 0.25% to close at 14,734.12 points.
However, the market breadth closed positive, recording 15 gainers as against 7 losers.
The Top Index was down 0.32% to close at 9,111.15 points. CBZ fell 1.93% to close at $137.30 while Innscor was 0.78% lower to $305.51. Delta plunged 0.54% to finish at $247.39.
SeedCo Ltd emerged as the top loser. The stock eased 13.43% to close at $93.50. StarAfrica was off 0.63% to end at $1.60. This saw the Medium Cap Index fall by 0.18% to close at 28,999.58 points.
Bucking the trend were NMBZ, FML and FMP which gained 8.74%, 6.33% and 3.53% to settle at $19.95, $21.00 and $7.09 respectively.
The Small Cap Index recovered 3.08% to close at 498,506.54 points. General Beltings emerged as the top gainer after climbing up 15% to $2.30. Turnall added 14.63% to close at $3.80.
Turnover for the day declined from Friday’s $286.70 million to $182.29 million.
On the derivatives market, the Cass Saddle Agric ETF was flat at $2.0700 while the Morgan & Co Made in Zim was flat at $1.3000.
The Morgan & Co Multi-Sector was up 3.18% to close at $28.5000. The OM ZSE Top-10 ETF rose 0.60% to $5.1998.
On the flip side, the Datvest ETF lost 14.48% to finish at $1.7007.
Meanwhile, the latest labour survey by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) shows that the total number of employed persons was estimated at 3.25 million compared to 3.27 million in quarter one. “This is expected as the economy moves from the agriculture season, as evidenced by a decline of 2.1% for the agriculture sector,” it said.
The Employment to Population Ratio (EPR) for the entire country was 35%. According to the survey, a reported 26% of the population in Harare and 13% in Mashonaland West were employed, respectively. The lowest percentage was 2% in Matabeleland North.
However, 88% of people work informally, and the majority of them are traders. Additionally, half of young people between the ages of 15 and 34 do not have jobs and are not enrolled in any type of training or study. 62% of people had earnings of less than Z$20,000 in April 2022.
With a rate of 73%, the 15–19 age group had the largest expanding unemployment rate.
According to the survey, the nationwide expanded unemployment rate for youths (15–24) was 67%, compared to 58% for youths (15–34) years – Harare
