By ETimes
The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange reversed losses to close on an upbeat note, following gains in 18 stocks.
This comes as the Treasury expressed concern over the continued depreciation of the local currency, which saw it announce seven policy measures.
“However, despite all the underlying strong fundamentals, we have now seen a resurgence of macroeconomic stability, with domestic inflation being driven primarily by the skewed preference for USD as a savings currency.
“This has put enormous pressure on the exchange rate as the skewed preferences have continued to increase the velocity of the Zimbabwe dollar,” Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said in a statement.
The seven policy measures include 100% retention of domestic forex earnings, adoption of all external loans by the Treasury, enhanced foreign exchange system, lifting of all restrictions on importation of basic goods, supportive interest rate environment, promotion of the use of domestic currency by government agencies, gold coins and gold-backed digital tokens.
Accordingly, the ZSE All Share Index, which measures the performance of quoted companies, jumped 1.11% to close at 59,538.57 points.
On the price movement chart, Zimplow led the gainers, appreciating by 14.94% to close at $63.80 while FMP Insurance followed with a gain of 11.09% to close at 34.95. OK Zimbabwe added 10.92% to close at $98.06. TSL gained 10.78% to close at $150.00. SeedCo Limited appreciated by 10.14% to end at $253.01.
On the contrary, Meikles recorded the highest loss, declining by 1.87% to close at $590.53. Starafrica went up 0.17% to finish at $2.39.
The Top 10 Index gained 0.67% to 35,813.01 points while the Medium Cap Index was up 2.59% to close at 114,893.40 points.
The Small Cap Index was flat at 770,499.89 points.
Transactions on the shares of OK Zimbabwe led activity chart during the day with 206 500 shares valued at $240.16 million – Harare