Market Comment - 15.12.2021

Bearish mode persists on the bourse... The market continued to falter in midweek trades as the mainstream All Share Index slipped 1.65% to 10176.15pts as the Industrial Index improved 1.66% to 33612.27pts. The Blue Chips Index shed 2.24% to close at 6307.76pts. Leading the laggards of the day was General Beltings that plunged 7.84% to $2.3961, trailed by telecoms giant Econet which declined 6.99% to end at a vwap of $74.2636. Agriculture equipment manufacturer Zimplow let go 6.52% to $21.5000 as brick manufacturer Willdale retreated 6.32% to $2.6123. Capping the top five fallers of the day was Hippo that trimmed 5.12% to $284.6322, having traded a low of $260.0000. MedTech class B shares headlined the winners of the day after surging 13.33% to $22.6667, trailed by life assurer Fidelity that gained 10% to settle at $11.0000. Insurance group First Mutual Holdings advanced 9.69% to $22.0000 while, banking group First Capital added 6.63% to end pegged at $3.0912. Hotelier African Sun completed the top five gainers of the day on a 5.18% improvement to $6.1377. A negative market breadth of nine was registered as twenty-one bears raged on twelve bulls. Activity aggregates were depressed in the session as volumes dropped 62.73% to 1.82m shares while, turnover dipped 71.15% to $118.25m. NMB, Delta and OKZIM were the top traded counters by volume with respective contributions of 34.82%, 18.73% and 10.06% apiece. Value drivers of the day were Delta, Innscor and National Foods that claimed a combined 63.65% of the outturn. The Old Mutual ETF grew 1.28% to $5.0000 as 59,648 units worth $298,240.0000 exchanged hands. No trades were recorded on the VFEX in the three stocks, as Bindura’s listing is slated for the 17th of December.