Delta leads Industrials lower at week's opening

Published: 27 January 2014

ZSE's Industrials Index fell to its lowest level this month largely dragged down by a bout of selling in blue chip Delta and selected counters across the board.

The Industrials Index eased 2.96 points or 1.52% to 192.31 with losses in heavyweights Delta and OK Zimbabwe cancelling gains in Innscor and Old Mutual.

Blue chip Delta's free-fall persisted today after dropping 3.50c or 2.73% to 124.5c while heavyweight retailer OK Zimbabwe recorded a 2.49% decrease of 0.51% to 20c.

Dual listed, Old Mutual closed as the top gainer, adding 10c or 4.35% to 240c while conglomerate Innscor added a marginal 0.04c or 0.05% to 75.05c after shareholders approved the company's Indigenisation Implementation Plan at an EGM held last Friday.

Meanwhile, telecoms giant Econet remained stable at 60c.

The Minings Index remained stable at 35.49 with no activity by the mining counters.

There was a significant decrease in the daily market turnover to $1.036 million on a volume of 4.860 million shares compared to Friday's $1.878million on a volume of 6.451 million shares.

Meikles is one of the three counters that traded in the green, advancing 0.37c or 1.79% to 21.07c.

The top loser on the day was Aico Africa, dropping 2.70c or 57.45% to an all-time low of 2c while Fidelity Life closed 24.81% weaker at 9c. Zimplow Holdings dropped 16.67% to its lowest level in a year of 2.5c while Mash closed 6.25% weaker at 3c. Padenga eased 0.50c or 5.88% to 8c.

Meanwhile, other counters to trade on the downside were bankers Barclays and Pearl Properties, which dropped 0.01c and 0.05c each to 4c and 2.65c respectively.

There were 8 indices to close in the red on the Zfn board with the benchmark Datvest All Share Index ending 1.26% weaker at 129.62 and the FBC ZSE-10 Index losing 1.40 points or 1.02% to 135.68.

Only 2 indices managed gains with the Dual Listed Index leading the pack with a 3.36% rise to 187.23 followed by the Conglomerates Index which added 0.13 points or 0.19% to end at 68.42.

- zfn