THE market capitalisation of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) closed the month of February at $4,7 billion largely driven by counters in the consumptive sectors.
Report by Victoria Mtomba
Market capitalisation is a measurement of size of a business enterprise (corporation) equal to the share price times the number of shares.
The market capitalisation opened the year at $3,93 billion. Total turnover from January 2 to February 28 this year stood at $82,7 million.
At the close of February Delta Beverages was valued at $1,3 billion. Official figures show that counters in the consumptive sector Econet, British American Tobacco, SeedCo, Innscor Limited, Hippo Valley, OK Zimbabwe, Old Mutual, Dairibord and National Foods dominated the top 10 market capitalisation.
A Harare-based analyst said the fact that the counters were top on the ZSE was an indication of the low disposable income by the majority of people. “These counters sell goods that people consume everyday while counters that sell other goods such as capital goods don’t have big market capitalisation,” he said.
He said people were only able to spend few dollars to buy everyday goods mainly food.
The industrial index contributed the bulk of the market capitalisation weighing in with $4,65 billion, while the mining index contributed the remainder.
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The mining index has four companies that include Bindura, Falgold, Hwange and RioZim.
The country’s mining index has very few companies despite that there are many mining firms listed elsewhere.
Counters that are among the least capitalised include Zeco Holdings, Pioneer Holdings, Phoenix, Chemco Holdings, Cairns, Gulliver, Steelnet, Willdale Holdings, Interfin Holdings and Apex Holdings.
The industrial index closed last week at 184,76 points with counters such as Old Mutual, Cafca, Delta, Econet, Dairibord and Zimplow recording gains.
The government plans to demutualise the ZSE in order to expose it to market forces in line with global trends.
The bourse has in recent times suffered a major blow as a number of counters have delisted, including most recently Cairns and TN Bank.
