Zimbabwe Bourse Loses $6 Billion, Index Falls 40 Percent After Military Takeover

Zimbabwe’s stock market has shed $6 billion while its main index has slumped 40 percent since last Wednesday when the military seized power leading to the fall of Robert Mugabe, stock exchange data showed on Thursday.

The main industrial index was at 315.12 points compared with 527.27 points on Wednesday last week when the military announced its takeover and put former president Mugabe under house arrest. On Thursday, the index fell 4.4 percent.

The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange had been on a rapid rise in the last two months, driven by investors seeking a safe haven for their investment amid fears of a return to hyperinflation in an economy suffering acute shortages of foreign exchange.

But analysts said the market had entered a period of correction on investor optimism of a change in economic policy in a post-Mugabe era.

Market capitalization was $9 billion, down from $15 billion last week, bourse data showed.

On the currency front, black market rates for buying cash dollars softened further on Thursday.

Buying $100 using electronic transfer cost $150, down from $180 last week. Some black-market traders said they were not buying dollars at all, anticipating further softening of rates.

Zimbabwe adopted the U.S. dollar in 2009, along with Britain’s pound and the South African rand, to tame inflation that topped out at 500 billion percent.

“The market is adjusting back to reality,” an analyst at a Harare-based asset management company said.

“The gains that we had seen were being fueled by an outlook of a return to hyperinflation, continued isolation of Zimbabwe by international lenders as well as well as a depressed economic outlook.”

An analyst at a local stockbroking firm said that Mnangagwa had hit the right notes with his speech on Wednesday.

Mnangagwa said he wanted to grow the economy, create jobs and for Zimbabwe to re-engage the international community as the country has faced isolation since 1999 when it defaulted on its debt with the International Monetary Fund.

Most of Zimbabwe’s 13 million people remain poor and face currency shortages and sky-high unemployment, something Mnangagwa promised to address.