Industrials in marginal gains as volumes recover

Published: 03 April 2014

Industrials recorded marginal gains on Thursday amid swelling volumes mostly in heavily capitalised counters.

There were significant volumes trading 6 out of the market's 10 most heavily capitalised counters with BAT accounting for $191 598, Delta $2,508 million, Econet $757 849, Innscor $259 875, OK Zimbabwe $189 966 and SeedCo $223 176 of the total market outturn.

Consequently the daily market turnover improved significantly to $4,338 million on a volume of 6.301 million shares against yesterday's S1.582 million on a volume of 3.014 million shares.

The Industrials Index gained a marginal 0.13 points or 0.07% to 176.46 after only two counters closed in the green against four which traded on the downside while 17 traded unchanged from previous positions.

Heavyweight retailer OK Zimbabwe led the risers after advancing 0.51c or 2.62% to 20.01c while the other gainer cement manufacturer PPC added 1c or 0.43% to 231c.

Blue chips Delta and Innscor traded unchanged at 115c and 62c rest giant's prepaid service subscribers are now able to access a maximum of $ savings account.

Econet remained stable at 62.52c after reports that the telecoms i worth of loans using cell phones under Econet's mobile phone

The Minings Index remained stable at 29.51 with Hwange closing unchanged at 6c after reports that tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten has written to the embattled coal miner demanding an EGM where he will fight to axe the board and top management before roping in a judicial manager to revive the coal.

Bindura also traded unchanged at 1.3c while Falgold closed buyers only at 1c.

The top loser on the day was ZPI losing 0.10c or 10% to 0.90c while Natfoods eased 4.44% to 215c. Mash dropped 3.67% to 2.10c and Padenga traded 1.23% weaker at 8c.

Bankers ABC closed buyers only at 53c in the wake of reports that the firm will soon issue a €150 million euro bond equivalent to $206 million, banking on the profile of its new partners Atlas Mara to enable it to attract investment.

The Zfn board however saw key indices closing in the red with the benchmark Datvest All Share Index losing 0.11 points or 0.09% to 119.21 while the FBC ZSE-10 Index was 0.03 points or 0.02% weaker at 126.38.

The Truworths Retail Index advanced 5.73 points or 2.14% to 272.85 spurred by gains in OK Zimbabwe.

- zfn