BSE bears carryover into 2017
Brian Benza | Wednesday January 11, 2017 14:55
The Domestic Companies Index (DCI) shed a further 0.12% in the three days of trading last week and closed the first week of the year 11.37 points lower. Opening the year on a losing note were Stanchart, Turnstar, Barclays and BIHL.
Stanchart, which opened the year trading on a cautionary, was one of the biggest losers for the week, softening 1.9% or 15 thebe to close the week’s trading at P7.60, a new 12-month low.
Turnstar Holdings was another casualty for the week, trading 1.5% lower after dropping five thebe to close at P3.20 a share.
Three other companies sustained losses in the short opening week of the year, shrugging-off a thebe apiece in what analysts explained as a pursuit for liquidity in the post holiday spending.
Barclays was lower at P5.03, BIHL closed at P17.54 while Sefalana fell below P13 to end the week at P12.99, all after trading rather thin volumes. “With very few of the top 10 companies expected to release their financials in the next eight weeks, we do not expect the trend to reverse any time soon,” analysts at Motswedi Securities stated.
There was, however, a modest recovery on Monday reducing the DCI’s year to date losses to 0.07% with BTCL surging two thebe ahead to close at P1.02 per share after 551,188 shares exchanged hands for the day.
The telecommunications company, which listed just last year has had a bullish rally since the release of their half-year results in December, and have recovered from a slump in August that saw the share price fall as low as 84 thebe.
In 2016, Choppies topped the losers’ pack on the BSE with its share price losing almost half of its value in a year where retailers and banks received the most battering.
The retail giant was the biggest loser, shedding 45% of its value in the 12 months to December 2016 helping the benchmark DCI to end the year 11.33% in the red. Choppies endured a challenging 2016 in which sales and profits slowed due to a tough operating environment in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
The second biggest loser of the year was Furnmart, which lost 35.87% in the year as the company released lukewarm financial results for the year ended July 31, 2016 with profits taking a knock due to the subdued economic activity.
The company, which also announced a decision to cease operations in Zambia, recorded a 2.4% decline in revenue to P1.19 billion due to lower sales in Botswana caused by a stronger pula leading to a 14.9% drop in profit after tax to P47.7 million. The third largest loser was Stanchart at 30.85% followed by FNBB at 22.51%.
Microlender, Letshego also lost a hefty 22.37% in the year despite a late recovery in the year driven by a company share buy back.