Market Comment - 24.11.2022

ZSE in marginal gains ... Marginal gains were recorded on the bourse in Thursday’s session. The primary All share Index edged up 0.11% to 14115.89pts while, the Mid cap Index went up 0.43% to 8118.07pts. The Midcap Index jumped 16.11% to 46356.23pts as the ZSE Agriculture slipped 0.02% to 73.25pts. Mash Holdings headlined the winners’ set after a 14.35% surge to $11.8046 followed by beverages giant Delta that ticked up 1.42% to $217.5320 on constrained supply. Innscor advanced 0.63% to $321.2389 while, First Mutual Properties grew 0.48% to settle at $10.5500. Axia capped the top five gainers of the day after a 0.16% uplift to $63.0863. Logistics concern Unifreight led the losers’ pack on a 13.41% slump to $45.0250 trailed by Star Africa that slid 6.77% to $1.7169. Packaging company Nampak dropped 5.29% to $8.0500 while, hotelier RTG trimmed 4.99% to settle at $7.5056. Completing the top five shakers of the day was banking group NMB that sunk 4.01% to end the day pegged at $24.0002. The market closed with a negative breadth of seven as seven counters registered gains against fourteen that lost grip. Activity aggregates enhanced in the session as turnover ballooned 419.795% to $690.48m while, volumes charged 860.48% to 14.89m. The top volume drivers were Mash Holdings, Econet, NMBZ that contributed 42.60%, 19.32% and 18.97% apiece. Econet, Delta, Simbisa and Mash Holdings contributed a combined 78.85% to the total outturn. The foreign purchases for the day were $218,390 while, the foreign sales rose 132360.38% to $284,558,017.50. On the VFEX, Bindura shed 0.29% to close at USD$0.2791 after 391,231 shares exchanged hands. Elsewhere, the Minister of Finance presented the 2023 national budget in which revenues are projected at ZWL$3.9trillion against expenditure of ZWL$4.5trillion resulting in a deficit of $336.9bn. A GDP growth rate of 3.8% is projected in the year 2023.