GAZETTE REPORTER
During the period 1st January to 30 September 2022, trading activity at Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) increased by 90.8 percent from the corresponding period in 2021, the BSE Market Performance Report for the period under review released recently shows.
According to the report, as at the end of September 2022, a total equity turnover of P882.3 million was recorded from traded volumes of 405.4 million shares, translating into an average daily turnover of P4.8 million.
“Turnover during the corresponding period in 2021 amounted to P462.5 mllion and a total volume of 300.4 million shares traded were recorded,” reads the report.
Local companies
The report shows that local companies contributed 60.7 percent to total equity turnover or P527.7 million while local individuals contributed 4.3 percent during this period or P37.6 million to total equity turnover.
“Foreign companies contributed 32 percent or P278.6 million while foreign individuals contributed 2.9 percent or P25.4 million to total equity turnover respectively,” it says.
The report also shows that during the period under review, the top three traded companies were Letshego (P463.2 million), FNBB (P85.8 million) and Sefalana (P60.5 million).
“The total turnover from these three companies accounted for 69.1 percent of total equity turnover, with the leading counter Letshego accounting for 52.5 percent of total equity turnover,” says the report.
“Letshego’s considerable contribution to total equity turnover results from two significantly high trades of P183.0 million on 23rd March 2022 and P142.7 million on 17th June 2022.
“In comparison to the same period in 2021, the top three traded companies accounted for 45.0 percent of total equity turnover with the leading counter Letshego accounting for 17.6 percent (P81.5 million) of total equity turnover.”
Under the stewardship of Thapelo Tsheole, the BSE says during the period under review of the 31 listed companies registered on the Serala OTC Board, including BBS, 11 depreciated in share price, 14 appreciated in share price while 6 experienced no share price change.
Top gainer
“The top gainer over the 1 January to 30 September period was Standard Chartered Bank Botswana (StanChart) with an appreciation of 40.8 percent, followed by FNBB and Botswana Diamonds (BOD) with gains of 26.0 percent and 25.0 percent respectively,” the report says.
“BBS Limited experienced the biggest decline in share price of 41.8 percent followed by Minergy and PrimeTime Property Holdings (PrimeTime) with declines of 20.0 percent and 14.3 percent respectively.”
BSE says the value of bonds traded during the period under review was P1.2 billion compared to P1.7 billion traded during the same period in 2021 whereas the market capitalisation of listed bonds stood at P25.4 billion.