Former ZSE chief executive Alban Chirume
THE Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) is yet to appoint a substantive chief executive officer (CEO), 22 months after Alban Chirume’s dismissal.
Chirume was suspended in January last year after he sanctioned a listed company’s cash call, despite reservations from the listing committee.
Operations manager Martin Matanda has been acting CEO since February last year.
Speaking at the relisting of Barclays Bank Zimbabwe as First Capital Bank event last Monday, ZSE chairperson Caroline Sandura said they were yet to identify the “best person” for the position.
“We sincerely hope that we will convene again soon to celebrate another listing. I hope at that time we will have a new CEO in place,” she said.
“We are searching for a new CEO for the stock exchange and we have searched internationally and regionally and also locally, what we want is to appoint the best person so that the stock exchange will move forward to a higher level and we are expecting new developments to come with the new leadership,” Sandura said.
In an earlier interview with The Financial Gazette, ZSE vice chair Bart Mswaka said they had identified names of potential candidates.
Chirume was being investigated over a litany of allegations, some of which were unrelated to the improper cash call.
He was appointed ZSE boss in May 2013, taking over from Emmanuel Munyukwi.
Matanda acted as ZSE CEO in 2013 before Chirume’s appointment.
Meanwhile, the All Share index closed last week on a positive note adding 9,16 points (7,32 percent) to close at 134,23 points.
There were no trades in the negative.
Foreign buyers’ participation on the bourse increased to $66 million during the first seven months of the year, from $27,4 million in the previous comparable period due to renewed confidence in the economy.
In the first eight months of this year, the ZSE experienced growth in trading activity, resulting in a 14,32 percent increase in the All Share Index, to 114,32 points.
The industrial and mining indices gained 15,38 percent and 15,16 percent, to 384,25 points and 163,99 points as at July 31 2018 respectively, from their positions in December 2017.
On a year-on-year basis, the industrial and mining indices grew by 89,05 percent and 136,16 points respectively.
As a result of improved trading activity on the local bourse during the seven months to July 2018, the ZSE’s capitalisation gained 14,51 percent to settle at $10,97 billion, from $9,58 billion as at December 31, 2017 — a 90,45 percent increase over the year.
Over the period January to July 2018, cumulative volume of shares traded grew by 54,4 percent to 1,5 billion shares, representing an increase of 206,14 percent to $427,11 million in value. newsdesk@fingaz.co.zw