ZSE:- Industrials recovers in hushed trades ahead of Independence holiday

Published: 10 June 2013

Industrials recovered on Wednesday after hushed trades where only 8 counters managed gains against 4 that traded lower with most heavyweight counters trading unchanged from previous levels ahead of Independence holiday tomorrow.

On the political scene media reports say that President Mugabe and PM Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday agreed that an election roadmap to be crafted by two Cabinet ministers from their parties should decide the date for the next election.

The Industrials Index gained 0.62 points or 0.33% to 188.65 largely on gains in BAT, which added 16c to 751c, its all-time high.

The market's protagonists Delta, Econet and Innscor traded unchanged at 125c, 65c and 86c respectively.

OK Zimbabwe closed unchanged at 18c after launching the 2013 edition of the OK Grand Challenge promotion which is also celebrating its silver jubilee this year.

The Minings Index also gained 0.81 points or 1.22% to 67.17 as Hwange and RioZim remained stable at 12.8c and 45c respectively. Meanwhile, Bindura and Falgold closed buyers only at 2.5c and 11c each.

Total market turnover dropped to below the psychological $1 million level at $553 521 on a volume of 8.767 million shares against yesterday's $1,549 million on a volume of 25.28 shares.

PG Industries led the top risers for the day adding 25% or 0.20c to 1c after CEO Hilary Munyati told an analyst briefing that the firm will reorganize the group structure, convert subsidiaries into divisions under a unitary structure with a single head office to align overheads to trading levels and achieve tax efficiencies.

Cement manufacturer PPC was one of the gainers, dosing 4.19% firmer at 209c whilst its competitor Lafarge closed buyers only at 70c.

Other risers on the day were bankers NMB, CBZ and Barclays which gained 0.99c, 0.50c and 0.10c to 10c, 13.7c and 3.1c respectively. Edgars advanced 1c or 8.33% to 13c whilst DZLH added 1.54c to 29.05c.

Afre, which has had a fine run in the past 2 weeks, was the top loser on the market today, trading 4.55% lower at 10.5c.

Also on the downside Hippo eased 5c to 110c while Meikles was a modest 0.01c weaker at 22c. Padenga was 0.20c lower at 4.6c.

The benchmark Datvest All Share Index added 0.23 points or 0.18% to 128.49 while the heavyweights' measure, the FBC ZSE-10 Index was 0.21 points or 0.15% weaker at 135.05 largely on Hippo's losses.
- zfn