Market Comment - 21.04.2022

Mid and small cap counters spur market gains... The market continued with its upward trajectory for the fourteenth consecutive session, as the Mid Cap Index breached the 40000pts mark to register a year-to-date gain of 94.87% having advanced 1.78% to settle at 40322.85pts. The All-share Index went up 1.01% to 23486.38pts while, the blue-chip stocks helped anchor the market charge as the ZSE Top 10 Index rose 0.75% to 15344.66pts. The Industrial Index added 0.95% to close pegged at 77616.32pts. The rarely traded counter ZECO headlined the gainers’ list of the day on a 20% jump to $0.0240 followed by mining house RioZim that edged up 19.94% to end pegged at $91.0500. Plastic manufacturer Proplastics buttressed prior sessions gain as it surged 13.13% to $51.0059 while, insurer First Mutual Holdings recovered from yesterday’s losses as it soared 12.89% to $24.5000. Bankers FBC capped the top five best performers of the day as it enhanced 12.89% to $24.5000. Banking institution First Capital led the laggards of the day as it dropped 11.66% to $6.6990, trailed by First Mutual Properties that weakened 8.01% to close at $11.0588. Zimplow was 4.13% softer at $25.1628 as sugar manufacturer Star Africa traded 2.78% down at $1.9819. Dairibord capped the top five worst performers of the day on a 2.23% loss to $46.9288. Activity aggregates enhanced in the session as volumes traded ballooned 147.39% to see 5.67m shares exchange hands while, turnover jumped 192.93% to close the session at its month high of $1.17bn. Econet and Delta were the most sought-after stocks of the day as the duo contributed a combined 48.76% to the volume total and 63.31% to value outturn. The three ETFs closed in the negative territory, as the Datvest MCS shed 4.02%, Morgan & Co ETF was down 4% and the Old Mutual Top Ten trimmed 0.89%. Elsewhere on the VFEX, Bindura was stable at US$0.05 as 1,67m shares were swapped in the counter.