Market Comment- 20.12.2022

The ZSE upholds its gains... The market maintained stable gains as three of the main indices reviewed close in the positive. The mainstream All Share went up 2.67% to 16138.51pts while the Heavies index soared 4.80% to end at 9724.77pts.The ZSE Agriculture index firmed 0.87% to 71.36pts while the Midcap Index, the only faller, gave up 1.45% to close at 34180.98pts. VFEX bound Innscor leapt 14.77% to $437.0000 to top the gainers group as sugar processor Star Africa rose 6.75% to $1.6000.Zimplow was 5.99% stronger at $16.9579 as Hippo Valley added 5.86% to $180.0000.Delta closed the risers set at $298.2475 after a 4.42% increase. On the fallers side, property outfit Mashonaland Holdings led with a 11.76% drop to $15.0000 after the major shareholder ZB announced a minority offer of ZWL$8.0000 per share. Trailing was clothing retailer Edgars that lost 11.49% to $8.0500.Hotelier African Sun dropped 10.22% to $21.8156 as First Mutual Holdings went down 10.05% to $20.9641.Plastics pipes producer Proplastics capped off the top losers’ set with 3.53% retreat to $25.1209. Econet, Delta and Proplastics emerged as the counters of choice dominating the volumes and values category. They contributed 79.27% of volume and 81.96% value. Other notable value drivers in the session were BAT (10.63%) and Axia(3.88%). Activity aggregates recovered from previous trades to see value soar 292.31% to $337.37m while volume climbed 293.14% to 4.77m shares. On the VFEX two counters registered trades. It was Padenga whose price fell 0.004% to USD$0.2280 on 30,992 shares while, Seedco traded 32,996 shares at a flat price of USD$0.2995.A total of 20,216 units exchanged hands on the ETF front as two ETF stocks improved against one that fell. Old Mutual grew 9.56% to $6.0260 while, Datvest picked up 2.82% to $1.5963.MIZ shrunk 4.22% to close at $1.1367.The market recorded a negative breadth of three as thirteen counters drew back against ten that advanced. A net outflow position was recorded on foreign trade as sales shore 101658.75% to $15.27m against foreign buys of $483,840.00.