By ETimes
The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) depreciated for the second consecutive day on Friday as the mainstream index dipped by 0.21%.
Today’s performance comes as monthly inflation for February reached negative territory.
“The month-on-month inflation rate in February 2023 was -1.6% shedding 2.3 percentage points on the January 2023 rate of 0.7%,” the Zimbabwe Statistical Agency said.
In June 2022, month-on-month inflation peaked at 30.7% which prompted the apex bank to raise interest rates from 80% to 100% to tame inflation and stabilise the exchange rate.
However, the local currency continues to lose value on both the official and parallel markets. On the official exchange rate, the Zimbabwean dollar is trading at 892.63 against the US dollar.
At close of trade, the ZSE All Share Index fell by 35.84 points to close at 29,196.89 points, while market capitalisation declined by $77.54 billion to $2.52 trillion from $2.6 trillion.
A total of 9.49 million shares valued at $396.68 million were traded by investors in 144 deals. In the previous session, turnover stood at $1.97 billion.
Nine companies, led by FMP and Tanganda, saw their share prices decline. Other top losers on Friday were SeedCo Limited, Starafrica and EcoCash.
Ten companies recorded price appreciation, with Ariston and NTS leading the pack. Other top gainers were First Capital Bank, CBZ and Econet.
NMBZ was the most traded stock by volume at 4.68 million units and the most traded by value at $196.89 million.
Datvest Modified Consumer Staples ETF shed $0.0513 to $1.8000, Cass Saddle Agriculture ETF lost $0.0100 to $2.0900, Old Mutual ZSE Top 10 was down $0.0035 at $8.0000 and Morgan & Co Made In Zimbabwe ETF shed $0.0032 to $1.3968.
Morgan & Co Multi Sector ETF remained flat at $22.4865.
Tigere Reit went up by $4.9170 to $50.5570.
Meanwhile, the Treasury said it has made progress in expunging the blocked funds.
“To date, Treasury has made payments amounting to US$19 million, with a balance of US$32 million which will be paid from April 2023 to September, 2026,” reads the statement.
“All claimants with amounts above US$1 million were issued with zero coupon Treasury Bonds (TBS) ranging from 3 to 20 years based on the outstanding amount. To date, total TBs amounting to US$1.485 billion have been issued.”
These Treasury Bonds are tradable, have liquid assets and have a described asset status.
The previous failure of the apex bank to meet its pledge to settle the debt forced other airlines to resort to threats ‘ – Harare