Investors gain ZWG23bn in 12 days as ZSE extends rally

LIVINGSTONE MARUFU

Investors have earned over ZWG23bn in the past 12 days after the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) rallied to ZWG112.17bn from ZWG89.16bn on January 2 2026.

Analysts say the bullish sentiment is a carryover from last year’s momentum, with generally increased prices in key counters, especially blue chips like Delta and Econet.

Morgan & Co investment analyst Tafara Mtutu stated the rally is directly linked to Econet’s delisting: “The rally that we are seeing on the ZSE is mainly because of Econet’s proposed delisting so the telecommunications giant as one of two major blue chips on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, if it delists it leaves only one stock that will be regarded as a proper blue chip stock and that is Delta. So what we are seeing now is there are investors that want to limit reinvestment risk and in doing so they are piling onto the only other blue chip that will be left after Econet delists, which is Delta.”

He explained the resulting price action: “So we have seen a lot of price action on Delta in the positive mainly because of that investors are trying to hedge away liquidity and reinvestment risk by divesting out of Econet and investing in a company with a similar liquidity profile on the ZSE and that’s only Delta. So that’s why we are seeing a lot of price action on Delta and that’s been driving the ZSE market cap.”

Mtutu added that speculators are influencing Econet’s price and questioned the bull run’s sustainability: “So we are also seeing Econet also moving in the positive but not as much as Delta. I would like to believe so especially in Delta but only in the case that people have excess ZiG balances that they are looking to invest in and Delta will be the only option for them. So I think there will be a lot of pressure to invest on Delta if there are ZSE balances but if there are no excess balances throughout the year I don’t think this bull run will be sustained.”

FBC Securities research analyst Enock Rukarwa concurred, citing a heading effect: “This bullish sentiment came through as a result of a heading effect. And this heading effect became continuous. No wonder why we are seeing a plethora of buyers at higher prices. Look at Delta. People, investors, are buying Delta shares at a price of ZWG31. On the other side, people are stumbling into buying the Innscor shares at more than US$1 and there is that anticipation and expectation that this price will continue to rise.”

He linked the sentiment to institutional year-end strategies: “And this has been creating the bull run that we have seen… What you then realize is that for the greater part of December there was a bullish sentiment. And that bullish sentiment can only be explained by the need by institutions to have higher portfolio valuations. And that is on December 31 2025. But this bullish sentiment then extended to January, the first few days of January because there was a carryover of buyers into January and this carryover of buyers created a phenomenon that we call the heading effect. Whereby every investor, every speculator, every hedger realised that there was an increase in the price of key counters, especially your blue chips, your Delta, your Innscor, your Econet and also your Simbisa.”

Rukarwa explained that Econet’s migration to VFEX is driving a shift to Delta: “The migration of Econet to VFEX has created excess selling on the part of Econet counter because most investors are viewing this corporate action as a move creating a negative value for them. It is because what people used to invest in that is the Ecocash business, the mobile business, the data business the SMS business and all those various companies your Moovah and your insurance will be in the private domain so what this has done is that it has been creating an excess selling on the Econet and share and given that there is no depth on the ZSE we have seen that money filtering or migrating to the Delta share and this has also been creating the bully sentiment that we are seeing is not on all the shares on the ZSE but it has been predominantly on the liquid counters and also the high caps your deltas and other financial institutions.”

He forecast the trend to continue: “Investors are still holding onto their shares in anticipation that the price will go up. We are expecting a bull run to continue in the next coming weeks and this will perpetuate bully sentiment that we are seeing.”