Market Comment - 28.04.2022

Market takes a breather... The market took a breather in Thursday’s session, breaking a nineteen-day rising streak, as profit taking kicked in. The All-Share Index was 1.41% lower at 29026.92pts while, the Old Industrial index was similarly down by 1.41% to close at 95730.71pts. The Mid-Cap Index was the major casualty amongst its kind on a 2.25% drop to 47085.96pts while, the Blue-chip Index succumbed 1.16% to 19331.40pts. Agro concern Tanganda led the laggards of the day as it dipped 19.65% to $270.0446, followed by engineering group Zimplow that shed 8.36% to $24.7426. Ariston slipped 8.13% to trade at $4.0700 while, First Mutual Properties retreated 7.29% to $11.1250. Banking group CBZ let go 5.31% to settle at $155.2889 as it capped the five top losers list of the day. Bankers ZB Holdings led the gainers of the day as it surged 20.00% to $75.6000 while, digital media group Zimpapers followed on a 19.79% jump to close with a vwap of $5.9893. Mashonaland Holdings went up 11.26% to $4.3357 while, Proplastics advanced 9.14% to $90.8824. Construction group Masimba edged up 7.02% to trade at $80.0000, albeit on scrappy shares. Activity aggregates improved in the session as volume of shares traded increased by 11.17% to 7.26m while, turnover jumped 22.54% to $1.58m. The threesome of OKZIM, Ecocash Holdings and Delta claimed a combined 55.07% of the total volumes traded. Delta, Innscor, Econet and Ecocash Holdings contributed 24.06%, 23.04%, 14.92% and 10.68% of the turnover in that order. The three ETFs traded mixed in the session as the Datvest MCS went down 9.02% to $1.8059 while, Old Mutual ETF was 1.17% lower at $11.8278 and the Morgan & Co ETF was the only gainer as it edged up 1.00% to end at $21.0761. On the VFEX, Padenga holdings ticked up 0.24% to USD$0.2130 while, Bindura was stable at USD$0.0480 as 52,300 shares traded. Lafarge closed at $169.5455 with no trades, post the release of its FY21 results in which a loss of $0.69bn in inflation adjusted terms was reported.