The second week of trading in December was weaker for both the equities and corporate bond markets in comparison to the first trading week of the month. Both bond and equities trading fell sharply and the former completely eclipsed the latter in terms of sales.
Equity Market Update
In the week ended 13th December 2019, a total of 87,208 shares were transacted in 54 trades, yielding a market turnover of K157,170 which represented a 98% slip in turnover compared to the previous week.
Trading activity was recorded in AFRICA EXPLOSIVES LIMITED ZAMBIA, CEC ZAMBIA, STANDARD CHARTERED BANK LIMITED, ZAMBIA METAL FABRICATORS, ZAMBIA BREWERIES and ZANACO. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) closed at 4,251.10 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K56,499,805,821 including Shoprite Holdings and K22,260,599,841 excluding Shoprite Holdings.
Corporate Bond Market Update
During the week, bonds of total face value of K55,118,000 were transacted in 4 trade, yielding a market value sales of K44,407,000. This represented a 67% slump in sales compared to the previous week.
Perspective
The promise of a better month of the equities market was soon lost in week 2 as both the bond market and equities market slid in performance compared to the opening week of December 2019.
On the equities side, AEL Mining Zambia replaced Madison Financial Services as the highest turnover traded company during the week. Its performance was largely helped by its higher share price despite the number of transactions made during the week only coming in second place. Furthermore, the AEL security was the most attractive among the traded lot as it boasted the highest earnings per share signaling impressive shareholder value for investors.
On the corporate bonds side, the slump in performance was a continuation of the poor performance that Financial Insight has observed over the last 6 months.
Important Announcements
Investment group ZCCM IH has announced that it expects its earnings per share to be lower for the financial year ended March 2019 due to reduction in performance at KCM and impairment of receivables.