Blue chips drags Industrials down

Published: 26 May 2014

Consecutive losses by heavyweight counters OK Zimbabwe and Econet further weakened the Industrials on Tuesday canceling modest gains in 5 counters.

The Industrials Index eased a modest 0.14 points or 0.08% to 171.66 as three counters closed on the downside amongst them heavyweights OK Zimbabwe and Econet.

Giant retailer OK Zimbabwe dropped 0.20c or 1.10% to 18c while Econet traded 0.78% weaker at 64.49c amid reports that the firm says it has been at the receiving end of unfair treatment from authorities and "feels unwanted" in certain spaces, claiming this was stifling its growth.

The top loser on the market was bankers Barclays which lost 0.10c or 2.78% to 3.50c. Meanwhile, blue chips Delta and Innscor closed unchanged at 115c and 68c respectively.

Minings Index remained stable at 28.06 with Bindura trading unchanged at 1.31c while Hwange closed buyers only at 5c following reports that the coal miner is considering developing a 300 megawatt thermal station and to extract petrol chemicals from coal to diversify revenue streams.

Daily market turnover marginally decreased to $1.214million on a volume of 18.34million shares against yesterday's $1,248 million on a volume of 15.694million shares.

Dawn led the top risers on the day gaining 0.10c or 12.50% to 0.90c while African Sun added 3.70% to 2.80c. Seedco added 1c or 1.43% to 71 c.

Padenga and cement manufacturer PPC gained 0.04c and 0.01c each to 7.65c and 201.01c respectively.

Meikles closed sellers only at 19c after reports that the diversified group is shutting down its upmarket Greatermans store and is replacing it with Pick and Pay supermarket.

Meanwhile, on the Zfn board both the Datvest All Share Index and the FBC ZSE-10 Index were all on the downside losing 0.14% at 119.04 and 0.22% at 124.38 respectively.
- zfn