Market Comment - 18.05.2022

Market falters as aggregates remain depressed... Activity aggregates were depressed in a dull trading session in which volumes plummeted 74.08% to close at 0.78m shares, in resemblance turnover dropped 72.13% to $92.22m. Econet, Delta, Ecocash and Innscor were the top value drivers as they accounted for a collective 77.03% of the outturn. Top volume leaders of the day were Econet (19.47%), Ecocash (11.00%), Delta (10.75%) and Mashonaland (10.56%). Leading the fallers’ pack was Hippo that succumbed 14.96% to end pegged $340.1786, trailed by First Mutual Holdings that slumped 14.85% to $16.1777. TSL tumbled 14.25% to settle at $97.7500, as RioZim shed 13.75% to $111.2625. Turnall trimmed 13.43% to cap the top five fallers’ category at $5.5581. Partially mitigating today’s losses were gains in property concern FMP that garnered 12.48% to close at $7.4205 followed was National Foods which surged 6.45% to settle at $2200.0000. Agriculture concern Ariston added 4.80% to $3.6869 while, bankers ZB Financial Holdings put on 4.47% to close at $83.0000. First Capital Bank Limited rounded off the top five gainers of the day as it improved 1.85% to end the day at $9.9887. Thirty-one stocks registered price movements in the session distributed into twenty fallers and eleven risers to leave the market with a negative breadth of nine. The market recorded a further drop during the mid-week’s session as the All-share Index lost 1.82% to close at 20986.91pts while, the Industrial Index declined 1.74% to 69250.71pts. The Blue-Chip Index fell 1.50% to 13494.55pts while, the Mid-Cap Index retreated 2.68% to 37572.53pts. On the VFEX, Bindura jumped 6.74% to trade at USD$0.0491 as 1,932 shares exchanged hands. The Datvest ETF advanced 8.07% to $2.0901as the Morgan and Co ETF went up 8.36% to $25.0000. Contrastingly, Old Mutual ETF eased 0.61% to $9.2450. In other news, General Beltings has issued a cautionary advising of its intention to consummate minority stake in the company.