Dar bourse wipes 10bn/- off investors' wealth in 7days

ABDUEL ELINAZA

THE Dar es Salaam Stock Exchanges (DSE) recorded a bearish week last week wiping off billions of shillings of investors wealth, amid low trading activities.

The market in a single week ended last Friday wiped off investor wealth by 10.79bn/- amid low trading activities, according to Orbit Securities weekly market synopsis published exclusively by this newspaper.

Orbit Securities said stocks are affected by below-par financial performance where companies’ revenues and profitability are declining. “It is against such technicalities, resolution of which might further push stock prices to yet lower levels.”

Technically, there is prescribed percentage limits relative to the latest closing price beyond which you cannot trade, as well as volume required to trade before moving the price.

DSE data showed that market capitalisation for domestic listed stocks closed at 10.04tri/- down from last week’s 10.05tri/- TSI, an index tracking domestic listed stocks, lost 4.12 points to close at 3,830.17 versus 3,834.29 the week before.

On the other hand, ASI which tracks all listed shares closed the week higher by 42.91 points to 2,156.01, lifted by Kenya’s stocks which rallied following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the re-run presidential election results.

Zan Securities Chief Executive Officer Mr Raphael Masumbuko said the bearish run was not exclusive to DSE as it was observed across exchanges in Africa. “If you look at Africa exchange trend you’ll see the [price] bearish is not exclusively for DSE rather entire continent.

This is a shortterm issue which will resolve in near future,” Mr Masumbuko told ‘Daily News’. However, on Monday the bourse started the week on the right foot after ASI or DSEI edged north.

The ASI closed the day by appreciating +6.45 points to 2,162.46 points, while TSI index remained flat, closing at 3,830.17points. But while share prices are wiping off investors wealth, the Africa markets are booming.

An analyst based in Egypt said African stock markets appear to be on a roll, with market capitalisations almost doubled in the few last years, albeit liquidity low levels. In 1989, only five sub-Saharan African countries had stock markets.

Today, 16 countries, including Tanzania, Ghana, Malawi, Swaziland, Uganda, Rwanda and Zambia, have their own operating stock markets. Between 1992 and 2002, the capitalisation of African stock markets more than doubled from 113 billion US dollars to 245 billion US dollars.