Industrials ends gloomy quarter in the positive

Published: 31 March 2014

ZSE's Industrials ended the first quarter of 2013 in the positive helped by a marginal recovery in selected heavyweights.

The Industrials Index advanced 0.38 points or 0.22% to 176.31 but is still 12.76% down on its January 1 level of 202.12. Month on month the Industrials Index is 6.93% down while it is also 4.11% down on a year earlier.

Daily market turnover more than doubled to close at $972 938 on 3.098 million shares from last Friday's $414 612 on just 1.792 million shares.

Monthly volumes improved with 381.7 million shares worth $28.90 million trading in March against 135.5 million shares worth $25.81 million that traded in February.

A total of 687.3 million shares worth $118.7 million passed through the market in the first 3 months of 2014, down from 560.6 million shares worth $120.4 million that traded in the same period last year.

In today's trades there were gains in Delta which recovered a modest 0.01c to 115.01c, Econet which picked up 1.12c to 62.12c and Innscor which gained 0.20c to 62.2c.

Dual listed Old Mutual added a marginal 0.01c to 255c while SeedCo was 1c better at 80c. Colcom led the day's risers after recovering a significant 4c or 20% to 24c.

CFI closed 0.01c up at 2.21c after CEO Steve Kuipa told shareholders on Friday that the group's 5 months revenue declined by 9% while margins eased by 1% due to the impact of restrained margins in the poultry and specialized divisions.

Pearl Properties, which last week announced the acquisitions of a few strategic properties meant to diversify the portfolio, added 0.05c to 2.65c.

On the downside TA Holdings slipped another 0.40c to 6.5c while FML extended losses after dropping another 0.50c to 9c despite an upbeat analysts briefing by CE Douglas Hoto last week.

CBZ dropped 0.18c to 16c ahead of its final dividend of 0.184c this Friday. Conglomerates Meikles and TSL closed 0.50c each lower at 16.5c and 36c respectively.

A total of 45 counters are trading in the red on their January 1 levels compared with just 13 that are trading in the positive this year to date.

Pelhams leads the fallers this year to date with a 99.6% drop followed by Cottco's 83.3% fall while Hunyani is third having lost 50% since January. RioZim and CFI are fourth and fifth respectively after losing 39.4% and 38.6% respectively.

Art leads the top ytd risers with a 100% gain followed by Pioneer's 66.7% while Zimpapers is third at 25%. Ariston and FML make up the rest of the top 5 with 23.6% and 12.5% respectively.

The Datvest All Share Index recovered another 0.51 points or 0.43% to 119.20 but is 12.02% down since January.

The FBC ZSE-10 Index was 0.70 points or 0.56% up at 125.72 and remains 11.28% in the red on its January 1 level of 141.72.

- zfn