The ZSE ended on a very depressing note in a week full of negative news. News of the signing into law of an empowerment bill jolted investors resulting in some heavyweight counters posting huge losses. Old Mutual which trades on the JSE and LSE fell to $1.40 from $1.55 last week. On the JSE Old Mutual touched an equivalent of $1.60 in early trades before rounding the day weaker at around $1.57, creating a gap of almost 12.2% with the ZSE price. Econet, one of my favorite stocks in 2010, bucked the trend, gaining some 14 cents from last Friday price of $4,86.
The service industry and retail counters remain popular with investors it seems. Manufacturing counters on the other hand remain week. Today saw an announcement by Star Africa that it is to embark on a capital raising exercise. The jury is still out on their timing of this transaction. No-one can blame them, money must be raised. Who saw the Empowerment bill muted in 2007 becoming law at a time when we are all trying to smart from one of the worst crises ever! Star Africa dropped to 8.5 cents from 10 cents last week.
As pointed out previously, we will see a lot of corporate actions in coming weeks as companies try and restructure their balance sheets.
No comments:
Post a Comment