ZSE turns positive as Gold Coins hit the market
HARARE – The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) opened the week on a positive note, extending gains from the previous session. This comes as the country’s long awaited Mosi-oa-Tunga Gold Coins debut today at an initial price of US$1,823.8 per gold coin or ZWL$805,745.35.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor, John Mangudya, said: “The Bank shall publish from tomorrow, 26 July 2022, the Mosi-oa-Tunya gold coin price by 0800 hours daily, which shall be based on the previous day’s London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) PM Fix plus 5% to cover the cost of production and distribution of the gold coins.”
Market participants are anticipating their uptake following the central bank’s release of the first batch of 2,000 gold coins to the market.They are mainly meant for institutions that are causing havoc in the market. However, smaller denomination gold coins will later be introduced.
“The bank shall be releasing additional gold coins into the market on a demand basis, guided by the agents.”
While the gold coins are poised to store value, others say as long as the policymakers don’t control the black market by “penalising money changing outside banks, it is a nightmare.”
Meanwhile, the mainstream ZSE All Share Index rose 2.74% to close at 16,616.07 points which left its year-to-date gain at 53.53%. The Top 10 Index gained the most, 3.18% to close at 10,277.57 points.
This follows gains in Econet, which climbed 11.20% to finish at $151.21 and had the most traded value at $201.85 million after trading 1,334,900 shares. Simbisa rounded off the top 5 gainers’ table with 10.90% to close at $219.76.
The market breadth closed positive as Unifreight led 23 gainers and 8 losers, topped by Turnall at the end of today’s session.
Unifreight dominated the gainers chart in percentage terms, appreciating by 14.89% to finish at $38.20. FMP came in second with a 12.39% gain to $7.88, and hospitality group RTG gained 11.91% to $9.40.
As a result, the Medium Cap Index recovered 1.75% to close at 33,097.93 points.
On the flip side, Willdale, African Sun and Meikles lost 4.79%, 2.10% and 0.99% to end at $2.29, $14.16 and $105.42 respectively.
The Small Cap Index was off 2.13% to close at 498,525.54 points. Turnall led the fallers’ table with 14.97% to $4.09.
Turnover for the day improved to $751.94 million from $659,91million in the previous session.
On ETFs, the Cass Saddle Agric was the only gainer with 0.22% to close at $1.4200. Conversely, the Datvest and OM ZSE Top-10 ETF were down 0.79% and 0.12% to finish at $1.6000 and $8.9887 respectively. The Morgan & Co Made in Zim and Morgan & Co Multi-Sector remained unchanged at $1.2500 and $28.5000 in that order.
