Bright Madera Senior Business Reporter
A foreign investor last Friday bought a block of 27,9 million Tobacco Sales Limited shares valued at US$2,4 million on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. Lynton-Edwards Stockbrokers executed the deal at US9c in normal trades. The transaction involved foreign investors on both sides.
Turnover for the day increased 64 percent to US$4,1 million compared with US$2,5 million recorded in the previous day. Volumes rose to 38,4 million shares from eight million shares recorded last Thursday.
Foreign participation remained buoyant as foreign trades accounted for 94 percent of the purchases and 88 percent of the sales.
“There were foreign buyers trying to sell and it could be that they have secured a buyer,” said a ZSE dealer.
TSL has a total of 345,9 million shares in issue. Closefin Investments, with 28,8 percent, Vanac Investments, 25 percent and Old Mutual, 11,6 percent are the majority shareholders in the conglomerate.
Closefin Investments is led by businessman Mr Washington Matsaire. They acquired Vanac’s 25,4 percent stake in the group, becoming the majority shareholder.
Investors believe the company is strong, going forward, after it said plans are at an advanced stage to establish a tobacco grower scheme as the group targets growth in profitability next year.
In its financials for the six months ended April 30, 2012, the group said it had restructured to focus on sustainable growth in the medium to long term.
In the short term, the company is expecting an improved profit performance as the initiatives under implementation make their full impact.
Meanwhile, last Friday’s trades in the industrial index failed to maintain the upward momentum gained over the previous three consecutive days, slipping 0,18 percent to 132,03 points. However, week-on-week, the index was 0,36 percent higher.
The mainstream index was dragged down by widespread losses in banking stocks while gains in Econet and Innscor failed to liven up the market. Econet inched up US2c to US425c, while Innscor pushed up US0,99c to close at US57c. Barclays traded 3,13 percent softer at US3,1c, CBZ gave up 1,96 percent to US10c, NMB lost 4,35 percent to US1,1c while Trust eased 0,99 percent to US1c. Seed producer SeedCo also lost 3,41 percent to settle at US85c.
Other notable losses were seen in NicozDiamond, Zimplow and Lifestyle Holdings.
The mining index, however, posted further gains in last Friday’s trades to close 3,65 percent higher at 105,61 points spurred by RioZim, which rose 17,50 percent to US47c, albeit on thin trades. Week-on-week, the consecutive gains resulted in a significant 16,18 percent jump.