ZSE snaps 3 month growth streak with 1.92% drop in  March 2022

Mixed trading on the ZSE in March resulted in the exchange dropping for the first time this year. The overall market value dropped by 1.92% but there were still big winners in the market. The VFEX traded upwards. The ZSE also announced an extension for the publication of December results which were supposed to come in by the 31st of March. The extended deadline is the end of April 2022.

Gainers

The biggest gain was recorded by ART Corporation with 60.29% up in March. This percentage seems to be the going rate for top gainers, month on month, in 2022. Only two members of the top 10 made it into the top 10 gainers in March. In total there were 36 counters that ended the month positive. ZECO and Finsec listed Old Mutual Zimbabwe traded sideways in a month that Old Mutual; Zimbabwe Limited released impressive full-year 2021 results. The gainers in the month were largely recovering from lows and included First Mutual Properties, Proplastics, Lafarge, BAT, Tanganda CAFCA and Innscor related pair Simbisa and Axia which posted good half-year results updates.

Losers

15 companies in total recorded losses on the ZSE in March with General Beltings Holdings being King amongst them dropping 24.54%. Star Africa after being touted for greatness has flattered to deceive in the short term conceding 17.36%. SeedCo shaved off some of its February gains to drop 11.76% in March with other Agriculture related concerns Ariston (-13.92%) and Hippo (-11.77%) also finding their way into the bottom 10 counters. First Mutual Holdings (-14.29%), Rainbow Tourism Group (-12.24%), Turnall (-9.43%) and ZB Financial Holdings (-7.69%) made up the rest of the bottom 10.

ETFs and VFEX

A quick look to the West shows the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange trading positive on the month with 3 of the 4 counters recording gains. The notable mover was Bindura Nickel which finally reflected the march of Nickel prices internationally. Caledonia maintained its price in a good month for the VFEX.

On the Exchange Traded Fund front, The Old Mutual Top Ten Index shaved off nearly 19.77% of its value. The same ETF finally announced that they will be passing on Tanganda shares received from Miekles to OMTT ETF holders as at 19 November. The fund received 150130 Tanganda and will pass them on to the 80 000 000 units that existed on the 19th of November. The new kid on the block Datvest Modified Consumer Staples ETF gained 88% in its maiden month though it peaked at $2.00 (+100% during the early days). The Morgan and Co Multi-Sector ETF gained just 0.40%.

December 2021 results delay granted

We’ve discussed before how ZSE listing rules give companies 3 months to release financial results after year-end. More than half the ZSE listed companies have a December year-end as does Finsec listed Old Mutual Zimbabwe Limited. The ZSE granted a further extension by 30 days sighting “overwhelming requests” for an extension by listed companies. Only 7 companies to our knowledge (FCA, FBC, Masimba, Zimpapers, BAT, Turnall and OMZIL) out of 31 published results within the original 3 months deadline.

Index Updates

As expected there was a shift in the ZSE Top Ten Index with Miekles making way for SeedCo Limited. The rest of the top 10 remains. The ZSE will introduce a new index, the Agricultural Index which as the name suggests will contain agriculture-related companies as of the 1syt of April 2022. Long overdue in all honesty. In a slightly more perplexing move, the ZSE will also introduce an ETF index. 2 of the 3 existing ETFs are based on indices as it is. We shall see if this brings any additional value to users.