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ZSE:- Industrials logs 4th straight loss ahead of referendum weekend

by Business reporter
14 Mar 2013 at 11:54hrs | Views
ZSE shares remained largely in the negative territory for the 4th consecutive session on Thursday ahead of the Constitutional referendum scheduled for this Saturday, which will pave way for the general election expected later this year.

The Industrials Index dropped 2.28 points or 1.22% to 187.49 to see its gains since January easing to 21.53% while the Minings Index closed 1.31% in the red at 67 23 as its gains this year to date dropped to just 3.24%.

The market daily turnover remained above $2 million for the 3rd day in a row closing at $2,128 million on a volume of 10.21 million shares after reasonable trades in DZLH, Econet, Innscor and OK Zimbabwe.

Aico Africa lost another 1.50c to its lowest level in 52 weeks of 5c as the group's planned unbundling of subsidiaries remains under wraps. SeedCo however recovered 1c to 66c.

Selling pressure in telecoms counter Econet saw the share price dropping another 4c to 61 c, losing 20.78% on its highest price of 77c since the 10 for 1 share split at the beginning of this month.

Innscor lost 4c to 85c ahead of its interim dividend of 0.80c record date next Friday while associate company Natfoods remained unchanged at 170c. Colcom however added 1 c to 26c.

There was also selling pressure in bankers CBZ which lost 0.10c to 14.9c and remained sellers at 15c with no buyers on the African Sun eased another 0.05c to 1.5c ahead of its AGM tomorrow.

OK Zimbabwe recovered 0.50c to 18.5c as clothing retailer Edgars added 0.40c to 11.5c after reporting an 18% increase in turnover to $62.5 million from $52.9 million in the 52 weeks to January 5.

Lafarge was 5c stronger at 75c after reporting a 41 % increase in turnover to $70 million in the year to December 31, 2012 with Jonathan Shoniwa forecasting revenue of $90 million in the year to December 2013.

Lifestyle Holdings led the risers after adding 0.20c or 66.67% to 0.5c in the wake of a court challenge by the Securities Commission of Zimbabwe seeking to bar tomorrow's EGM, which among other things seeks to delist the company from the ZSE.

Masimba remained buyers only at 2.1c in the wake of its interims presentation yesterday where management articulated the group's strategy going forward saying they will focus on developing adequate long-term funding structures in order to help the group exploit developing opportunities in the country as well as to match long term requirements of the business.

Powerspeed dropped 0.40c to 1.6c alter MD Hilton Macklin told shareholders that the company had slowed down their sales to non-retail customers because of slow payments and the company now eyes further retail expansion.

ZPI added a modest 0.01c to 1.21c after publishing December 2012 financials where portfolio rentals for the year went up by 26% to $3.81 million from $3.03 million on the back of rent reviews and containment of voids in the portfolio.

Zeco traded for the first time this year unchanged at 0.01c in deals worth approximately $5. Zeco last traded shares worth just $1,65 on December 6 last year.

The Zfn board closed largely in the red with the benchmark Datvest All Share Index losing 1.60% to 125.54 while the FBC ZSE-10 Index was 1.94% weaker at 131.71.

Gains in retail counters Edgars and OK Zimbabwe helped the Truworths Retail Index to close 2.61% up at 255.60

Source - zfn