The local bourse – Zimbabwe Stock Exchange – last week showed signs of a rebound following a 5-week long drop that was triggered by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s 2019 Monetary Policy Statement.

The equities market’s main indices were back in the black on Friday, notwithstanding the Mining Index.

The All Share Index was marginally up by 0.08% to 121.66 points on the back of marginal gains in telecoms giant Econet, which rose 0.03%, Cassava Smartech up 0.05% as well as conglomerate Innscor up 4.96%,

Losses were however recorded in beverages giant Delta Corporation, which was down 2.29%.

The Top 10 Index and Industrial Index increased by 0.17% and 1.14% to 405.57 and 114.61 points respectively.

But the Mining Index shed 3.84% to close at 3.98 points on losses in Bindura Nickel and RioZim of 9.94% and 1.58% respectively.

The ZSE recorded a 0.58% upturn in total market capitalisation to RTGS$16.07 billion.

“Demand appears to be slowly crippling back up as investors are picking stocks at these cheap levels. We anticipate demand in Old Mutual, Cassava, Econet and Innscor will lift the market further this week.” Said analysts at Akribos Research Services.

Prior to Friday’s gains, the bourse’s All Share Index’s year-to-date loss stood at 17,57 percent on recent weeks’ losses, largely attributable to the RBZ’s introduction an inter-bank foreign currency exchange platform last month, which foreign investors may have taken direction from.

Before the introduction of the Monetary Policy Statement measures, the country was facing acute foreign currency challenges and resultant inflationary pressures which pushed both local and foreign investors to hedge their money on stocks to protect value.