Stock Market Weekly Review

Abullish sentiment prevailed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) which saw investors pocket a cumulative $50 billion in a week. During the week to Wednesday, total market value jumped 10 percent or by $50 billion to $541,6 billion compared to $491,6 billion recorded in the previous week sustained by gains in the market’s big cap counters.

The primary indicator, the ZSE All Share Index put on 10,03 percent to 4 484 points reflective of the gains recorded across board.

The market’s heavyweights, the ZSE Top 10 Index advanced 10,7 percent to close at 2 694 points. At 3 083 points, the ZSE Top 15 Index was 9,9 percent above prior week level while the Medium Cap rose 7,8 percent to 10 217 points.

The Small Cap raced the fastest with a 36 percent gain to 32 205 points from 23 658 points recorded in the prior comparable week.

NTS headlined risers for the week with a 106 percent increase to $1,68 from 81,5 cents followed by Unifreight which put on 86 percent to $10,30.

General Beltings jumped 76 percent to 61,1 cents. At $2,14, Turnall was 65 percent above prior week level. Property firm, Mashonaland Holdings put on 48 percent to $2.

Other gains were seen in Cassava and Lafarge that rose 45 percent to $14,51 and 43 percent to $39,60.

Diversified media group, Zimpapers put on 34 percent to $1,34 while FML added 38 percent of value to $20,20.

The market was not short of fallers as further gains were offset by losses in Masimba which eased 10 percent to $17 followed by FMP which lost 8 percent to $5,50.

Diversified insurance firm, ZHL backtracked 6 percent to $2,05 while Zimplow decreased 4 percent to $7,80.

Proplastics wrapped up the week’s top five fallers after giving up 4 percent to $23.

Other losses were seen in Ariston and FCB which lost 3 percent each to $2,24 and $1,81 respectively while Axia fell 2 percent to $15,52 from $16 last week.

TSL and Meikles remained unchanged at $43 and $45 in that order. Also maintaining prior week level was Hippo which closed at $120.

During the week, Seed Co delisted from the bourse.

In a move that marks a complete turnaround from the group’s 2018 unbundling, the its regional operations and Botswana Stock Exchange-listed Seed Co International (which is secondarily listed on the US dollar denominated Victoria Falls Stock Exchange — VFEX), will be merged with the Zimbabwean entity.

The merger, estimated at around $5,1 billion, sees SCIL acquiring up to 247 169 845 SCL shares (constituting SCL’s entire issued share capital) through an open market offer to be settled through the issuance of new SCIL shares on the basis of 1 SCIL ordinary share for every 0,98 SCL ordinary shares held.