By
Daniel Chigundu
THE
impending do-or-die harmonized elections set for
sometime later in the year are reportedly affecting trading on the country’s
bourse, market watchers have said in a report.
In their wide-ranging weekly market
watch Tetrad Holdings Limited said confusion regards the holding of elections
and timing has resulted in some investors taking a wait-and-see approach.
Zimbabwe is
synonymous with holding disputed elections oftenly accompanied by a wave of
violence as witnessed in June 2008 run-off.
“As expected and widely discussed here before,
trading activity on the ZSE is much reduced. Most investors seem to be taking a
back seat ahead of elections. Those that wanted to take positions already did
so in the highly active first quarter,” read the report.
Already there is uncertainty in the country over
economic policies and election dates. Jostling and rubbishing each other over
interpretation of the electoral laws has reached alarming levels in the
inclusive government.
Zanu PF hardliners are holding on to June 29 while
the two formations of MDC are saying the date is not possible because of
reforms they have demanded.
However the fighting in government is already
driving away investors who were slowly gaining confidence in the country and is
likely to force them to adopt a wait-and-see stance similar to what they did in
2009 at the consummation of the inclusive government.
Tetrad however said that even though there is
reduced trading at the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange it has noticed a new trend
slowly developing.
“Despite the low trading levels, another trend is
emerging. Interest in the blue chips is still high. Econet for example has
continued to command a high percentage of total trades on the market.
“Delta, BAT and PPC are at all-time highs, all reached last week. We
expect this trend of low overall trading activity to persist but skewed towards
blue chips,” the report said
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