By ETimes
Trading activities in Zimbabwe’s equity market closed in the red on Wednesday, making it the third consecutive day of losses this week.
Policymakers are poised to meet before the end of this month to chart the way forward. Chief among the issues to be addressed is whether the monetary policy committee will revise interest rates downward as this has affected aggregate demand in the economy.
Also, there is the issue of the need for a market-driven system considering the continued depreciation of the Zimbabwean dollar against the US dollar. At the auction, the local unit is trading at $732.00, while on the black market, it is being quoted at $1100:US$1.
At the close of trading, the mainstream ZSE All Share Index depreciated by 1.09% to close at 21,438.71 points. In the same vein, the market capitalisation declined by $3.44 billion to close at $2.31 trillion.
Accordingly, the Top 10 Index was 1.34% lower to close at 13,295.91 points. Losses were recorded in EcoCash and Innscor, which shed 8.10% and 4.88% to end at $55.08 and $651.39 respectively.
Conversely, Econet led the gainers’ table to close at $132.22 after it gained 14.70%.
The Medium Cap Index suffered the most, plunging 0.47% to close at 42,723.25 points. First Capital Bank was the biggest loser, falling 10.53% to $13.03.Brick maker Willdale eased 5.41% to close at $3.50. Zimplow rounded out the top 5 losers, dropping 4.17% to $23.00.
Gains were recorded in Proplastics, RTG and SeedCo Limited, which climbed by 10%, 3.62% and 3.01% to close at $35.20, $11.91 and $103.00 respectively. FML rounded off the top five gainers for today. The stock climbed by 1.69% to $22.37.
Market turnover increased by 1147.57% to $1.77 billion in 276 trades. Innscor was the toast of investors as it traded 1.29 million shares valued at $846.61 million, while Econet traded 5.88 million shares worth $813.90 million.
Morgan & Co Multi Sector ETF, Morgan & Co Made In Zimbabwe ETF and Datvest Modified Consumer Staples ETF remained flat at $22.880, $1.3000 and $1.5800 respectively.
On the other hand, Old Mutual ZSE TOP 10 added $0.0077 to $7.4900 and Cass Saddle Agriculture ETF added $0.0100 to $1.9800.
Tigere REIT shed $3.4401 to close at $46.5599 – Harare