…as ZW$ further depreciates against USD
By ETimes
The stock market closed on a negative note, as the mainstream All Share Index dipped 0.29% to close at 13,661.22 points as investors flailed about on relatively slow news Tuesday.
Market developments
The Cabinet meeting which was due for today was rescheduled to next Tuesday following President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s visit to Kigali, Rwanda for the Presidential Summit Session of the African Green Revolution Forum starting today and ending tomorrow. The meeting is highly expected to address the forthcoming farming season and the availability of inputs. Also, to talk about the rising prices of goods and services beyond the reach of many, while importantly, not forgetting about the liquidity crisis.
The Statistics Agency, Zimstat, has released migration figures from the 2022 census. It estimates a Zimbabwean diaspora of 908,913 people, with 85% of the Zimbabweans living in South Africa. It said there was a sharp increase in people leaving Zimbabwe between 1980 and 1990, before a sharp drop from 1990 to 2000. There was a “steady increase’ in the number of emigrants between 2001 and 2015, and then a sharp increase that peaked in 2021.
The Zimbabwean dollar depreciated by 6.10% against the greenback to $580.18 at Tuesday’s weekly auction as the local currency slowly caught up to the black market rates, which are trading at 800x to the US dollar. Last week, the Zimbabwean dollar traded at $546.82.
Stocks Performance
Market sentiment, as measured by the market breadth, closed negative with 19 stocks compared with 12 gainers. Investors’ wealth on the local bourse declined by $6.9 billion to $1.68 trillion.
Gains in CBZ were not enough to lift the Top 10 Index as it headed lower, off 0.50% to 8,149.18 points. The stock gained 2.56% to close at $160.00 and left its year-to-date gain at 112.86%.
Beverage maker Delta, which had the most traded value of $109,359,700, shed 1.06% to end at $220.26.
Mid-tier stock Zimplow recorded the highest loss as shares went down some 9.21% on the day to $15.43.
Other laggards of the day included Proplastics, which fell 6.75% to $21.44 while ZHL shed 5.69% to $4.64. GetBucks and Willdale eased 5.33% and 5% to $16.00 and $1.90 in that order.
Gainers for today were led by hotelier African Sun, which climbed 12.66% to close at $18.00, while milk processor Dairibord also saw its shares gain 4.50% to settle at $21.73. First Capital Bank added 3.85% to end at $8.62. FMP gained 0.82% to $5.20, rounding out the top five gainers.This saw the Medium Cap Index rise 0.21% to 29,235.53 points.
The Small Cap Index was down 1.01% to 484,082.97 points.
A total of 3,008,000 shares valued at $327,032,895 were traded by investors in 343 deals.
ETFs
The Cass Saddle Agriculture ETF was flat at $1.5500. The Datvest Modified Consumer Staples ETF added 0.30% to close at $1.5000 while the Morgan & Co Multi Sector recovered 0.55% to settle at $26.6453.
On the flip side, the Morgan & Co Made in Zimbabwe was off 0.39% to close at $1.2451 and the OM ZSE Top-10 ETF fell 0.10% to finish at $5.6245 – Harare
