Industrials fall below the psychological 100 mark, the lowest since April 30, 2009
THE subdued run on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange persisted Tuesday, underpinned by negative market sentiment. The market`s sluggish performance saw only nine active counters, as the sell-off that has characterised the bourse of late shows no signs of abating. Trades were largely dominated by consumer facing businesses, which provide a defensive cover for investors.
Inflation data released for January showed a slight improvement but remains in the negative at -2.19%. On the political front, its dog eat dog as Zanu PF`s internal wars get nastier by the day. This narrative will likely persist in the short to medium as the party`s factions move to position themselves in preparation for the post Mugabe era.
The mainstream Industrials Index dropped to its lowest level since 30 April 2009, as it closed the day at 99.80, down 0.59% from Monday`s levels. The Industrials was mainly weighed down by losses in Barclays and OK. Meanwhile, the Mining index remained flat at 18.74, signaling low investor appetite to long mining stocks, as plunging commodity prices and rising extraction costs dent sentiment in the counters.
Old Mutual was the only counter to trade in the green today, adding a marginal 0.13% from yesterday`s levels. First Mutual, Pearl, Simbisa and Star Africa were unchanged from prior levels, while Barclays led the day`s shakers, retreating 7.89% to close off the day at 3.50 cents. OK shed 6.66% on a large block of shares. Innscor fell 2.60% as rumours of its proposed takeover of Powerspeed continue to do the rounds. Delta eased 0.57% to end the day at 52 cents from prior day trading.
There were a total of 29 trades on the ZSE today, with total turnover dropping to $842 056 from yesterday. Foreigners bought shares worth $121 306 and sold off $801 744 worth. Delta dominated value traded today, accounting for close to 56% of value traded today, at $449 800. OK Zimbabwe came in second, registering $206 600 of total value traded. 12.4 million shares were traded on the ZSE, nearly double the volumes registered yesterday. FinX