ZSE:- Industrials advances to record levels on renewed interest in blue chips

Published: 10 June 2013

Renewed interest in ZSE's heavily capitalised counters saw the Industrials advance for the second straight session to hit a new record level while the resources sector remained largely inactive.

The Industrials Index added a significant 3.92 points or 2.15% to a new record level of 186.67 surpassing the 184.75 level reached on February 5. The Minings Index remained stable at 8128.

Volumes improved from yesterday after notable deals in Delta, Econet and Innscor resulting in the total value of trades dosing at $1,225 million on a volume of 6.605 million shares.

Blue chip Delta added 1.99c to 125c while Econet was 3c firmer at 655c, another all-time high and Innscor advanced a significant 10c back to 100c with buyers still looking at trading prices.

SeedCo led the risers after recovering 10c to 70c despite having issued a profit warning statement saying annual profits would be lower than the previous year. Parent company Aico Africa remained unchanged at 9c.

TSL scaled new heights after adding 0.90c to 16c on the back of upbeat financial performance in the year ended October 31, 2012, where a final dividend of 0.43c was declared. The dividend will be paid on March 7.

Bankers ended largely in the red with CBZ trading 0.50c weaker at 11c ahead of its finals and analysts briefing next week. Barclays added 0.10c back to 3c.

FBC was 0.50c weaker at 8c after the group terminated discussions tor the disposal of its stake in Tumall saying it is now focusing on merging its commercial banking and the building society to meet the revised RBZ minimum capital requirements.

NMB eased 0.10c to 1.1c after shareholders yesterday unanimously approved the placement of shares to offshore investors to pave way for injection of new capital by offshore strategic institutional investors.

Old Mutual continued to advance after adding 2.01c to a new all-time high of 189.01c while PPC closed buyers only at 250c.

The Datvest All Share Index closed 1.90% up at 124.37 while the FBC ZSE-10 Index was 2.55% firmer at 130.37 taking its gains since January 1 to 28.02%.
- zfn