Market Comment - 22.07.2021

Market extends gains in Thursday’s trades... ZSE extended gains in Thursday’s session as all the indices under our review ended the day in the black ahead of the midterm budget statement. The All-Share Index added 1.15% to settle at 6604.38pts as the Top Ten Index rose 1.11% to 3446.71pts. The Mining Index ticked up 1.10% to 6197.85pts, spurred by gains seen in Bindura which improved 1.69% to close at $5.0970. The Industrial Index buttressed its prior session’s gains by 1.15% to settle at 21758.54pts. Cigarette manufacturer BAT led the gainers of the day after surging 20% to settle at $960.0000, trailed by hotelier African Sun which was 19.86% firmer at $8.1500. Lafarge advanced 7.83% to $93.6000 while, Star Africa was 6.68% up at $2.7880. Cable manufacturers Cafca capped the top five gainers with a 6.06% rise to end at $175.0000. Advancing counters outnumbered decliners by a count of one to leave the market with a positive breadth. Getbucks led the laggards of the day for the second day in a row after succumbing 19.37% to settle at $6.9880. Clothing retailer Truworths dropped 4.00% to trade at $2.4000 while, Medtech eased 3.65% to trade at $0.3802. Rainbow Tourism Group shed 3.18% to end at $3.8729, with apparel retailers Edgars completing the top five losers after trimming 2.11% to $4.5028. Value drivers of the day were Hippo (18.16%), OKZIM (15.77%), Econet (13.92%), Delta (12.77%) and Innscor (12.60%). Volume drivers of the day were OKZIM, Star Africa, Econet and Axia which claimed a combined 67.60% of the outturn. Volume of shares traded jumped 20.31% to 9.14m yielding a turnover of $243.60m which was a 20.3.22% upsurge. Elsewhere, no trades were in Padenga and SeedCo International on the VFEX.