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Zimbabwe Stock Exchange shows little reaction as army takes control

Harare - The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) closed down on Wednesday after armed forces seized power and placed President Robert Mugabe under house arrest.

At the close of trading the ZSE’s main Industrials index was down 1.28% to 527.27, while the Mining index was unchanged.

Turnover for the day at $13.6m was slightly lower than $15m on Tuesday.

There were loses across the board led by Edgars which lost 19.75%. British American Tobacco Zimbabwe, meanwhile, ended the day 7.5% weaker, while PPC lost 4.5%.

Blue chip counters, including telecoms company Econet, also ended in negative territory shedding 1.64%. Anheuser-Busch inBev associate Delta was down 1.12%.   

Analysts said it was hard to tell whether the ZSE's drop was in reaction to the recent developments, as the Zimbabwe bourse had been volatile in the last couple of days.

"It’s hard to tell, because we have been seeing bouts of profit taking in the last couple of days," said a local stockbroker who requested anonymity as ZSE rules prohibit stockbrokers from speaking to the press. "Besides, we do not think the fundamentals on the ground will change any time soon."

Business as usual, mostly 

Most retail outlets in the Zimbabwean capital of Harare had earlier opened for business Wednesday. A survey conducted by Fin24 showed that by 10:00 on Wednesday morning most shops had opened their doors, although walk-in traffic at outlets was noticeably lower than usual.

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