By ETimes
The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) opened the week in the red on Monday as just 10 stocks appreciated amid growing uncertainty surrounding the ‘Gold Mafia’ report.
On Thursday, Al Jazeera announced that it had stopped airing a four-part investigation exposing official corruption in Zimbabwe.
Today, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) issued a statement titled “Scurrilous and malicious allegations carried in snippets from unscreened Al Jazeera documentary” denied claims that it is “Southern Africa’s laundromat”.
“It is unbelievable that such bizarre claims, allegedly made by private individuals who have no relationship with the Bank whatsoever, have been elevated to gospel truths and published with reckless abandon,” RBZ governor John Mangudya said in a statement.
On February 27, 2023, Mangudya said the Bank provided a thorough response to all 32 questions in the interest of openness and social responsibility, and the responses unequivocally demonstrate that the story being propagated up to this point is untrue.
“The Bank is disappointed that either Al Jazeera Investigative Unit has not included the Bank’s responses in the information they have leaked to or shared with their selected media houses and journalists, or the concerned journalists have elected to ignore the Bank’s responses and only published the fake allegations in a malicious pursuit of a hidden agenda, unknown to the Bank or Al Jazeera.
“The Bank reserves its rights to take appropriate legal action or initiate necessary sanctions against the interviewees and purveyors of the fake news to protect its fiduciary responsibilities in the national interests,” he said.
At day’s end, investors had transacted 2.42 million shares valued at $145.58 million in 154 deals. NMBZ led the most actively traded equities with 2 million shares worth $90 million. EcoCash came in second with 251 100 shares valued at $17.32 million.
The market capitalisation of all listed equities declined by $14.79 billion from $2.52 trillion it closed on Friday to $2.50 trillion. The ZSE All-Share Index depreciated by 0.62% to close 29,015.87 points on select heavyweight counters.
Only 6 counters recorded declines on the price sheet. CFI was the worst performer, declining by 14.99% to close at $588.80. CBZ followed, depreciating by 5.42% to end at $141.86. As a result, the Top 10 Index suffered the most, as it fell 1.22% to settle at 16,815.21 points.
Elsewhere on the price sheet, African Sun, First Capital Bank and Meikles eased 5.27%, 3.47% and 0.14% to close at $92.84, $18.31 and $194.72. The Medium Cap Index was off 0.17% to end at 64,074.29 points.
Conversely, Proplastics led the gainers table with 14.53% to close at $80.00. ART rose 10% to $22.00. Nampak was 8.75% higher at $23.00. Starafrica added 7.22% to close at $1.90. Banking counter NMB gained 7.14% to end at $45.00.
The Small Cap Index was flat at 641,429.16 points.
Morgan & Co Multi Sector ETF gained 2.38% to settle at $23.000 while Morgan & Co Made in Zim ETF garnered 0.22% to finish at $1.4000.
In the red was Cass Saddle Agriculture ETF, which eased 1.91% to end at $2.0500.
Tigere Reit increased by a negligible 0.09% to close at $50.6075.
On the VFEX, BNC appreciated by 19.64% to close at US$0.0201. On the flip side were Axia and Simbisa which declined by 5.08% and 0.11% to settle at US$0.1400 and US$0.4495 respectively – Harare