Industrials skid at holiday shortened week's opening

Published: 23 April 2014

Industrials skidded again at the beginning of holiday shortened week on Tuesday as the breadth of the market remains on slippery ground.

There were marginal gains in 2 of the market's top 10 heavyweights but these were outweighed by losses in 3 other blue chips.

The Industrials Index eased 0.94 or 0.57% to 163.85 taking losses this year so far to 18.93%.

Heavyweight retailer OK Zimbabwe dropped 1o or 5.56% to 17c. Meanwhile, Econet and Old Mutual closed amongst the top risers, adding 1 c and 5c each to 60c and 250c respectively.

Blue chips Delta and Innscor closed unchanged at 105c and 59.5c respectively.

The Minings Index remained stable at 28.82 with no activity recorded in the mining counters.

Daily market turnover significantly dropped to $326 935 on a volume of 1.536 million shares against Thursday's $1.781 million on a volume of 13.19 million shares.

Zimplow Holdings dosed as the top riser, gaining 0.10c or 4.35% to 2.40c while bankers FBC advanced 0.10c or 0.79% to 12.80c.

NMB closed buyers only at 3c after reports that the banker is set to issue another tranche of Small to Medium Enterprises bond following interest from investors and will use other financial sources to beef up the purse to finance targeted enterprises.

The top loser on the market was Padenga, shedding 0.60c or 7.89% to 7c while TSL dropped 2c to 28c. Clothing retailer Edgars eased 0.50c to 12.50c.

CBZ traded 3.23% weaker at 15c while SeedCo dropped 2.84% to 65c and PPC eased 5c or 2.38% to 205a

African Sun dosed sellers only at 2.5c after publishing a further cautionary statement saying the mandatory offer by Lertgrah Investments is being compiled in accordance with the ZSE listing requirements and will be announced to shareholders once completed and approved.

The benchmark Datvest All Share Index on the Zfn board dropped 0.25 points or 0.22% to 113.04 while the blue chips measure, the FBC ZSE-10 Index lost 0.11 points or 0.09%
- zfn