MTHANDAZO NYONI THE Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe (SecZim) exceeded its targets for the year 2021, with daily stock market turnover hitting US$2,4 million, up 98% against target due to investor education as well as awareness initiative and financial inclusion interventions.
The commission had targeted to achieve US$1,21 million in 2021.
According to the organisation’s update as at December 31, 2021, there were more trades on the market compared to 2020 as daily turnover was almost double the target.
SecZim acting chief executive officer Gerald Dzangare told businessdigest that this was mainly due to the stock market’s ability to preserve monetary value because share prices generally rise in relation to inflation.
“In 2021, the market broke new ground by achieving listing of new products like exchange traded funds (ETFs), which gave investors a wider variety,” Dzangare said.
“In addition, SecZim’s investor education and awareness initiative and financial inclusion interventions significantly contributed to increased investor participation.
“All these factors led to increased volume and value of trades, which translated into a 98% surge in average daily turnover in 2020, daily stock market turnover stood at US$1,4 million,” he said.
Dzangare said the number of investors on stock exchanges was targeted for 15978 but those who traded on exchanges were 19 078, showing a 21% above target performance.
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“This was mainly due to increased automation and digitisation within the capital markets. Digitisation included launch and promotion of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange’s ZSE-Direct and Escrow Group’s C-Trade platforms,” he said.
“These digital channels provided ease of remote access for investors from the 25 years to 35 years demographic who were now included and could afford ZW$1 000 and ZW$500, which these digital platforms require as minimum amounts for stock market trading.”
SecZim targeted to grow securities market intermediaries (SMIs) to 107 from 102 in 2020. This target was surpassed in that 115 SMIs were licensed in 2021, which is 8% above target.
This, Dzangare said, was due to low licensing fees, which enabled financial service companies and practitioners to register for any licence category they wanted.
