Market Comment - 06.03.2023

NMB shines in Monday''s session as Axia debuts on the VFEX... A block trade in NMB Holdings highlighted the session as 2m shares worth $90m exchanged hands. The trade accounted for 82.45% of the volumes traded and 61.82% of the turnover. The other notable volume driver was EcoCash holdings which claimed 10.35% of the total. In the values category, other notable counters were Ecocash and CFI which had a combined 22.42% of the turnover. Activity aggregates were depressed in the session on volume that declined by 74.45% as 2.43m shares traded while, turnover fell by 63.25% to 145.97m. A total of eighteen counters registered price movements distributed into eleven gainers and seven fallers, to leave the market with a negative breadth of four. Agriculture concern CFI led the laggards of the day trimming 14.99% to $588.8000 trailed by CBZ that eased 5.42% to end at $141.8644. Hotelier African Sun closed the session down 5.28% to settle at 92.8462 while, First Capital reversed prior session’s gains as it shed 3.47% to close pegged at $18.3100. Meikles capped the top five worst performers of the day on a 0.14% loss to $194.7280. Partially mitigating the losses was Proplastics that jumped 14.53% to $80.0000, followed by Art Holdings that surged 10.00% to $22.0000. Packaging group Nampak edged up 8.75% to $23.0000 while, sugar manufacturer Star Africa edged up 7.22% to $1.9010. Bankers NMB fastened the top gainers of the day on a 7.14% ascent to $45.0000. The ETFs traded mixed as Morgan & Co’s Made in Zim and Morgan & Co Multi sector advanced 0.23% and 2.28% respectively while, Cass Saddle dropped 1.91%. Datvest and Old Mutual Top 10 were stable at $1.8000 and $8.0000 apiece. The All-Share Index trimmed 0.62% to 29,466.15pts while, the Blue-chip Index retreated 1.22% to 16,815.21pts. The Agriculture Index was the major loser amongst its kind as it dropped 2.54% while, the Mid Cap Index was down by 0.17%. On the VFEX, the All-Share Index was marginally down 0.02% to 105.7981pts as Axia slipped 5.08% to US$0.14 on its maiden day of trading, as 1,550 shares traded in the counter.