By ETimes
ZSE close higher, over 48,938kg tobacco go under hammer on first trading day
The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) on Thursday gained 0.36 percent, extending bullish sentiment to three consecutive trading sessions.
Turning to tobacco seasonal sales statistics, only 48,938 kilograms of tobacco went under the hammer on day 1 of sale, while the contract system started today.
Tobacco is being sold at an average price of US$2.56 per kg, compared to US$2.58 during the same period last year.
Traditionally, the opening of tobacco auction floors leads to improved foreign exchange inflows in the country, with buyers scrambling to purchase the crop.
Coming back to market performance, the mainstream ZSE All Share Index climbed by 186.90 points to close at 29,467.99 points. Gains in Delta lifted the Top 10 Index as it recovered by 0.99% to end at 16,990.67 points.
The beverage maker rose 2.06% to finish at $531.21.
Partially offsetting the gains were OK Zimbabwe and EcoCash which eased 0.81% and 0.07% to close at $55.57 and $65.86 respectively.
The Medium Cap Index was off 0.27% to close at 65,290.58 points. On the other side of coin, Proplastics emerged as the heaviest price decliner, going down 12.05% to close at $70.31. First Capital Bank fell 2.69% to close at $18.00. African Sun was 0.71% lower to $92.00.
However, Mash Holdings surged 11.32% to finish at $10.00. Ariston garnered 4.17% to finish at $11.45. ZBFH went up 3.30% to $118.80.
The Small Cap Index increased by a negligible 0.02% to settle at 678,872.11 points. Bridgefort Capital Limited emerged as the top gainer, up 12.69% to $29.30.
Market capitalisation increased by 2.41% to $2.54 trillion.
Turnover declined by 60.78% to $483.82 million. Delta emerged as the most active stock at the market yesterday, transacting 332,000 shares worth $176,362,000.
Datvest Modified Consumer Staples ETF added $0.0439 to $1.9987 and Cass Saddle Agriculture ETF added $0.0382 to $2.0882. Morgan & Co Multi Sector ETF increased by $0.3614 while Old Mutual ZSE Top 10 added $0.0259 to close at $7.8631.
Morgan & Co Made In Zimbabwe ETF remained flat at $1.4000.
Tigere Reit went down by $0.6872 to $45.0028 – Harare