By ETimes
The local bourse added 0.63% on Wednesday in extension of their newfound upturn ahead of the third quarter earnings season expected to begin any moment soon.
Market observers expect the positive performance to be sustained as investors seek out bargains and continued positioning for the third quarter earnings season in the equity market.
Market breadth, often used to determine the level of investors’ sentiment towards trade, was positive, with 20 gainers emerging, compared to 4 laggards.
At close of trade, the mainstream ZSE All Share Index gained 0.63% to close at 13,487.15 points. Accordingly, market capitalisation surged by $9.66 billion to end at $1.64 trillion.
Losses in BAT and Hippo saw the Top 10 Index losing 0.08% to 7,921.22 points. Cigarette manufacturer BAT was down 5% to close at $2,850.00 while Hippo eased 2.90% to end at $200.95.
Marginal gains were recorded in Simbisa, EcoCash and Delta which rose 0.79%, 0.53% and 0.51% to settle at $162.43, $49.84 and $206.41 respectively.
The Medium Cap Index gained the most, rising 2.23% to close at 29,920.19 points.
Transcorp Hotels led gainers, appreciating by 14.97% to close at $29.30. First Capital Bank added 11.05% to end today’s trade at $10.00. Axia went up by 10.62% to $55.33. Afdis rose to $299.00, notching up 8.33% in the process. Ariston completed the top 5, climbing by 6.43% to $3.92.
FMP was the worst performing stock, declining by 13.67% to close at $6.00. ZHL fell to $4.55, losing 8.85%.
The Small Cap Index was flat 493,292.78 points.
In all, 8,972,600 million shares valued at $600,009,350.25 were traded in 289 deals. Transactions in the shares of Econet topped the activity chart with 2,692,900 shares valued at $229,075,000.
On the derivatives market, the Datvest Modified Consumer Staples ETF lost 0.05% to close at $1.7092, the Morgan & Co Made in Zimbabwe fell 0.70% to $1.2000 and the OM ZSE Top-10 ETF was down 0.14% to end at $5.1926.
However, the Morgan & Co Multi Sector and the Cass Saddle Agriculture ETF were flat at $25.1765 and $2.0000 in that order.
Oil futures recouped some of the previous sesson’s 2% loss on Wednesday, supported by supply concerns stemming from last week’s Opec+ cut to its production target, though a stronger dollar weighed on sentiment.
Brent crude futures were up US$36c, or 0.4%, at US$94.65 a barrel after touching a session low of US$93.33. West Texas Intermediate was up US$21c, or 0.2%, at US$89.56 after a session low of US$88.27.
Currently there are two dominant forces in the oil market at the moment: the economic outlook being the primary downside risk and Opec+ the upside.
Gold prices traded in a narrow range on Wednesday as investors looked for more clues on the pace of US monetary tightening from Federal Reserve minutes and inflation data due this week.
Spot gold fell 0.1% to US$1,662.98 per ounce, hovering close to a one-week low touched on Tuesday. US gold futures were down 0.9% at US$1,671.00.
