Market Comment - 18.08.2021

Econet spurs activity aggregates… Econet was the most sought-after stock in the midweek session as circa 4.72m shares worth $186.87m exchanged hands in the Telecom giant. The trades accounted for 61.50% of total volumes and 61.26% of the value outturn. Other notable volume drivers were Axia and Delta with contributions of 10.41% and 10.33% as Delta claimed 22.22% of the value aggregate. Volumes traded went up 7.80% to 7.68m shares while, turnover for the day jumped 72.73% to $305.09m. Market breadth was negative as twenty-four stocks registered losses while, fourteen stocks registered gains. Life assurer Fidelity led the laggards of the day on a 12.50% dip to $10.0000 trailed by, financial services group ZB which trimmed 11.11% to end at $80.0000. Insurer FML let go 10.71% to close at $25.0000 while, retailer OKZIM retreated 6.27% to close at a vwap of $16.5448 having traded an intraday low of $16.5000. Medtech capped the shakers of the day on a 6.21% drop to $0.2509. Other notable fallers of the day were ART (-5.84%), NMB (-5.60%), Nampak (-2.99%) and CBZ (-2.05%). Headlining the winners of the day was Dairibord which gained 7.48% to settle at $39.7667, following was brick manufacturers Willdale that improved 7.33% to $3.2200. Banking group First Capital extended 3.56% to $3.7687 while, sugar refiners Star Africa added 2.81% taking its price to $2.0054. Zimplow completed the top five winners of the day after putting on 1.19% to set at $15.9375 where supply could be found. No trades were registered on the VFEX as Padenga ended with a bid of 5,400 shares at US$18.0000. The Old Mutual Exchange Trade Fund declined a further 1.23% to $2.4500 as it traded ex dividend. The mainstream All Share Index lost 0.95% to end at 6902.81pts while, the Industrials slipped an almost similar 0.96% to 22758.36pts. The Top Ten Index was 0.83% lower at 3669.71pts while, the resources index rose a negligible 0.03% to 6118.40pts.