Market Comment - 16.03.2023

Econet highlights Thursday''s trades... Telecommunication giant Econet highlighted today’s activity aggregates as it traded 2.95m shares worth $649.59m. Econet accounted for 67.05% of the volume traded and 88.84% of turnover. Other notable volume driver was Ecocash that claimed 18.18% of the total. Activity aggregates were mixed in the session as volume traded slipped 16.66% to see 4.41m shares worth $731.56m, representing an 83.51% jump. A total of twenty-eight counters exchanged hands, segregated into fifteen risers, nine fallers and four that sailed stable. Leading the gainers of the day was Meikles that jumped 15.00% to close at $236.9500, trailed by TSL that surged 14.79% to $85.0000. Apparel retailer Edgars buttressed prior session gains as it advanced 12.84% to end at $18.7500 while, CBZ inched up 6.06% to settle at $175.0000. Beverages manufacturer Delta capped the top five risers of the day on a 5.79% ascent to close pegged at $651.6000. Turnall topped the worst performers list of the day on a 12.50% loss to close the day at $7.0000 followed by Ariston that trimmed 8.55% to $10.1358. Property concern Mashonaland closed at $10.0000 following a 3.38% dip while, Star Africa was 1.20% weaker at $1.6236. Zimre holdings completed the top five decliners of the day on a 0.88% retreat to $11.3540. The ETF Index was up 13.64% to 413.33pts as Old Mutual Top 10, Datvest MCS and Cass Saddle gained 1.54%, 0.59% and 0.16% respectively. On the VFEX, the All-Share Index closed 0.21% higher at 97.46pts. Axia was the top gainer on the VFEX as it grew 4.42% to cap the day at US$0.1253, post the release of its HY23 results in which it reported a PAT of US$10,824 and declared an interim dividend of US0.18cents per share. Other notable gainers were Seedco International and Simbisa that rose 0.19% and 0.28% to end the day trading at US$0.2700 and US$0.4291 respectively. Laggards on the VFEX bourse were Bindura (-0.50%), Innscor (-0.30%) and Padenga (-0.20%). Nedbank was stable at $11.50 as scrappy five shares exchanged hands. A total of 194,774 shares worth 119,744.69 traded on the VFEX.