Market Comment - 27.10.2022

ZSE records marginal gains... The market closed in the positive territory as gains in selected heavies helped lift the market. The mainstream All-Share Index went up 0.78% to 14838.12pts while, the ZSE Top Ten Index extended 0.60% to 8774.22pts. The ZSE Agriculture Index advanced 1.60% to 76.60pts while, the Mid-Cap Index rose 1.23% to 32.454.26pts. Banking group NMB topped the winners’ list as it surged 10.09% to close at $24.0000 post the announcement that the bank had acquired a USD$10m line of credit facility from the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development bank. Cigarettes manufacturer BAT jumped 5.98% to $3,175.0000 as Proplastics put on 5.55% to $29.4958. Tea company Tanganda shored up 4.94% to $85.0000 as tourism group RTG completed the top five risers list of the day on a 4.71% lift to $8.0000. Partially mitigating today’s gains were losses in fintech group Ecocash that slipped 3.51% to end pegged at $44.0474. Insurer First Mutual holdings shed 2.85% to $25.0000 as scanty 200 shares exchanged hands. Property concern FMP trimmed 1.55% to settle at $8.9000 while, agriculture concern Ariston slumped 0.85% to close at $3.9661. Dairibord holdings held the fifth position of the fallers’ table on a 0.38% retreat to $49.7500. Volumes of shares traded tumbled 64.62% to 1.69m as turnover succumbed 26.86% to $148.78m. Volume drivers of the day were Proplastics, Econet and Ecocash that claimed 31.46%, 16.95% and 13.61% in that order. Value outturn was anchored by Simbisa (23.98%), Delta (22.43%), Econet (16.37%) and Proplastics (10.55%). Foreign outflows outstripped inflows in the session to set a net funds outflow position of $54.48m. The duo of Datvest MCS and Old Mutual ETFs traded sideways in Thursday’s session as the former added 0.79% to trade at $1.7437 while, the latter let go 1.35% to $5.4258. A total of 74,154 units worth $154,199.35 exchanged hands in the two active ETFs. On the VFEX, Padenga dipped 7.51% to USD$0.2500 on 6,125 shares.