Industrials in 3rd straight rise

Published: 16 January 2014

Industrials recorded their 3rd successive rise on Thursday as investors' interest remained confined to the market's protagonists and heavyweights Delta and Econet.

Trading activity across the board slowed somehow with only 18 counters recording trades against 28 that traded yesterday.

The Industrials Index gained 0.84 or 0.42% to 202.76 buoyed by gains in heavyweights Delta and Econet as only 5 counters traded in the green against one which dosed in the red.

Volumes remained reasonable again largely on deals in Delta and Econet with the daily market turnover slightly dropping to $2,658 million on a volume of 11.99 million shares against yesterday's $2,876 million on a volume of 7.935 million shares.

Heavily capitalised counter, Delta added 1c or 0.71% to 141c while Econet gained 0.19c or 0.31% to 61.20c amid reports that the group plans to commercially launch remittance services between locals and residents in South Africa under its mobile money transfer platform, EcoCash.

Conglomerate Innscor traded unchanged at 80c and OK Zimbabwe closed buyers and sellers only at 19.5c and 20c respectively.

The top riser on the day was Dawn, adding 0.10c or 11.11 % to 1c and bankers Barclays advancing 0.20c or 5.26% to 4c. The other riser, Pearl Properties closed 3.85% firmer at 2.70c.

ZPI was the only counter to close on the downside, shedding 0.05c or 4.55% to 1.05c.

FML closed unchanged at 8.5c after reports that the firm is this year targeting a growth rate above inflation (estimated at about 1.5%) and overall market growth for its businesses as it seeks to consolidate its position among top performers in the life and insurance business.

TSL remained stable at 39c after setting an EGM for Friday January 31 to seek shareholder approval for the control and authority to issue and allot certain unissued share capital to acquire a strategic business in transport and logistics within the next 2 months on the basis of a share swap arrangement.

There was not a single sector to record losses on the Zfn board as all the 5 sectors that recorded movements ended on the upside.

The benchmark Datvest All Share Index added0.53 points or 0.39% to 136.16 while the FBC ZSE-10 Index was 0.35% better at 143.05.

The Property Index topped the other sectors after reversing yesterday's losses by rising 2.40 points or 2.14% to 114.51.

- zfn