ZSE goes electronic

THE Zimbabwe Stock Exchange will from next week discontinue the manually prepared reports dispatched through its e-mail daily service following the launch of its web data portal system.

Acting ZSE chief executive Mr Martin Matanda said following the launch of the web portal, access to the ZSE data would now be offered for free through ZSE data portal website visits and social media, e-mail alerts and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds.

But the ZSE said in a statement that manually prepared financial reports distributed via e-mail would be scrapped from June 3 2013 to pave way for full use of the electronic platform.

The new services include inter alia an "immediate" data feed (providing access to information as soon as it has been processed) and a "delayed" data feed (providing information at the end of the day) in addition to the other channels such as widgets an RSS feed and e-mail alerts. ZSE said its mission was to provide investors with details to make informed investment decisions based on complete and timely information.

However, the web-based data portal means those interested in immediate commercial data feeds, delayed commercial data feeds, financial "widgets" and "plug ins" such as share price tickers and indices for news and corporate websites have to be pay for the services.

The transition by ZSE to an online data system, in line with the bourse' vision to modernise the ZSE, impacts on the consumers of financial information such as commercial data vendors, media, brokers, pension funds, commercial banks and anyone with an interest in providing investment information on their websites or online.