Industrials tumble again in dismal trades

Published: 10 April 2014

There was nothing to cheer about on the ZSE on Thursday as trading remained dismal with volumes dosing much lower than yesterday's while Industrials tumbled again dragged by losses in Econet and Hippo.

No significant volumes were traded in the market's blue chips resulting in the total daily outturn dropping to $563 983 on a volume of 5.262 million shares compared with yesterday's $5,475 million on 45.06 million shares.

The Industrials Index lost 0.67 points or 0.38% to 174.68 taking losses this year to date to 13.58%. The Minings Index remained stable at yesterday's level of 28.82 as Bindura traded unchanged at 1.3c. Econet dropped 0.50c to 62c while Hippo lost 5c to 65c, its lowest level in 52 weeks.

Other top counters Delta and Innscor closed unchanged at 115c and 62.2c respectively. OK Zimbabwe and TSL were also stable at 19c and 35c in that order.

Masimba led the day's fallers after losing 1c to 3c while cement manufacturer Lafarge dropped another 10c to 65c, its lowest level in 52 weeks.

Old Mutual dropped 3c to 240c while Fidelity Life, which yesterday set the record date for the final dividend of 0.3443c for Friday April 25, lost 1c to 7.5c another 52-week low.

There were only 3 counters to close in the positive with Astra leading the pack after recovering 0.50c or 14.29% to 4c. Property counters ZPI and Mash added 0.01c each to close at 2.01c and 0.96c respectively.

The Datvest All Share Index dropped another 0.70 points or 0.59% to 117.77 taking its losses in the year to 13.07% while the FBC ZSE-10 Index was 0.50% weaker at 124.97 and is now 11.82% down since January.

Gains in Mash and ZPI helped the Property Index to recover 0.30 points to 0.34% to 88.28.

- zfn