ZSE shares falter in mixed trades

Published: 04 March 2014

ZSE shares fattened on Tuesday after mixed trading in the market's heavily capitalised counters while daily volumes recovered from yesterday's levels but turnover stayed below the psychological $1 million level.

3 out of the market's top 10 counters ABC, Econet and Old Mutual managed to close in the positive while 2, BAT and OK Zimbabwe were in the negative and 3, Delta, Innscor, and SeedCo remained stable at previous levels.

The Industrials Index lost 0.12 points or 0.06% at 189.53 on yesterday's restated level of 189.65.

The Minings Index lost 2.43 points or 6.38% to 35.64 after Hwange's offer came down to 8c compared with its last trading price of 10c. Daily market turnover improved to $733 048 on 33.38 million shares from yesterday's paltry $160 519 on a volume of 1.488mtn shares. ABC, which due to announce finals to December 31 anytime from now, recovered 5c to 50c.

Econet added 0.51c to 66.01c after reports the group's banking unit Steward Bank is now connected to the banking sector's electronic payment platform, Zimswitch. The company has also announced that its Ecocash Payroll system will offer access to credit lines to SMEs and companies using the platform depending on transaction volumes and value.

Another top counter trading in the positive was Old Mutual which added 1.91c to 247.02c after publishing the group's finals to December 31,2013 where a final dividend of 6.0 pence was recommended.

On the downside BAT eased 40c or 3% to 1300 and remains sellers only at 1340c with no buyers in sight ahead of its final dividend of 18c record date on Friday March 21.

Retail counter OK Zimbabwe dropped 0.50c to 18.5c and remains 7.5% in the red this year to date.

TA Holdings led the risers after recovering 1c to 8.5c while Ariston remained among the favourites after adding 0.10c to 1.2c.

Cottco added another 0.08c to 1.1c after buyers challenged a significant parcel of almost 30 million shares. Cottco has done 120% since relisting 2 weeks ago.

TSL added 1c to 38c while insurance counters Fidelity Life and FML added 0.50c and 0.06c each to 9.5c and 10.06c respectively. NMB, which is trading under profit warning statement, led the day's risers after dropping 1.50c to 5c. Padenga closed 0.20c weaker at 9.3c while Pearl Properties was a modest 0.01c lower at 2.6c.

There were just 3 indices to close in the red on the Zfn board as 7 out of the 12 managed gains while only 2 were unchanged from previous levels.

The benchmark Datvest All Share Index added 0.22 points or 0.17% to 128.46 while the heavyweight's measure closed 0.26 points or 0.20% up at 135.72 as gains in ABC, Econet and Old Mutual outweighed losses in BAT and OK Zimbabwe.

The Truworths Retail Index lost 5.61 points or 2.14% to 256.36 after giving in to losses.
- zfn