BSE stock performance down- report

Botswana Stock Exchange’s market performance continues to take a knock, recording trade lower than last year, fresh data from the bourse shows. “During the period January to 30 November 2020, the domestic company index ( DCI) depreciated by 8.4 percent in comparison to a decline of 4.4 percent during the same period in 2019 while the domestic company total return index ( DCTRI) depreciated by 3.8 percent in comparison to an increase of 1.0 percent in the corresponding 2019 period,” said Thapelo Tsheole, BSE Chief Executive Officer. The development comes on the backdrop of another low trading of counters, in October, Tsheole has bemoaned that the trading activity during the review period was lower in 2020, relative to the corresponding period in 2019. He said the BSE had recorded total equity turnover of P656.0 million from traded volumes of 373.6 million shares, as at the end of November 2020. Despite the decrease in trading, the month of March experienced the highest turnover of P117.7 million over 50.9 million traded shares followed by the month of June with P89.9 million over 33.9 million traded volumes. On the other hand, the foreign company index ( FCI) depreciated by 1.0 percent on a year to date basis in 2020 compared to a decline of 0.5 percent over the same period in 2019. The BSE recently launched a new website, mobile application and stock market ticker. The ticker is expected to provide real- time market information that will include price and indices movements, news announcements, turnover level, volume and other relevant market information.

BSE believes the information will assist investors and various stakeholders to stay abreast of the rapidly changing financial market conditions and position the exchange at the forefront of information dissemination and encourage transparency. Meanwhile, BSE has announced that the development of Botswana’s education system remains an important part of the country’s growth agenda. Tsheole said the bourse was committed to work with government and other stakeholders to promote education. He said delivery of quality education will improve lives of youth and transformed the nation into a knowledge- based economy.