The Lusaka Securities Exchange (LuSE) All Share index has lost 7.14% in the last 2 months.
In recent weeks, share prices of AEL Zambia and CEC Zambia have fallen by 10% and 9.8% respectively. The current leaders and laggers include AEL Zambia, Zambian Breweries, National Breweries and Zanaco Bank as leaders with Zambia Sugar, CEC Zambia, Airtel Zambia and Puma Energy, according to information extracted from the Bloomberg Terminal. As at Wednesday 4th March, the index stood at 5515.7.
The fall in the all share index was attributed to the poor performance of the stock exchange which has been plagued by liquidity challenges. February 2019 was the weakest trading month thus far, according to Financial Insight Analytics that tracks the stock exchange on a weekly basis.
However, Q1 closed stronger with increased turnover and a rebound in trades on the LuSE. Despite the rebound, key leaders and laggers stocks continue to lose share price. As at publishing time, CEC Zambia had lost 0.02% in share price.
With the Purchasing Managers index for February 2019 indicating a positive improvement in confidence among purchasing managers, the rebound in trades may be an indicator of a momentary bounce back for the LuSE. Continued liquidity constraints will continue to put pressure on buyers and sellers in terms of price offers on the market.