The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange will from next week discontinue the manually prepared reports dispatched through its e-mail daily service following the launch of its web data portal system. Acting ZSE chief executive Mr Martin Matanda said following the launch of the web portal, access to the ZSE data would now be offered for free through ZSE data portal website visits and social media, e-mail alerts and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds.
But the ZSE said in a statement that manually prepared financial reports distributed via e-mail would be scrapped from June 3 2013 to pave way for full use of the electronic platform.
"We will be discontinuing the manually prepared reports despatched through our e-mail daily service with effect from Monday 3 June 2013 on the assumption that you have by now registered to receive the same information directly from the system or are making arrangements with our consultants to use other channels mentioned above."
The new services include inter alia an "immediate" data feed (providing access to information as soon as it has been processed) and a "delayed" data feed (providing information at the end of the day) in addition to the other channels such as widgets an RSS feed and e-mail alerts. ZSE said its mission was to provide investors with details to make informed investment decisions based on complete and timely information.
However, the web-based data portal means those interested in immediate commercial data feeds, delayed commercial data feeds, financial "widgets" and "plug ins" such as share price tickers and indices for news and corporate websites have to be pay for the services.
The transition by ZSE to an online data system, in line with the bourse' vision to modernise the ZSE, impacts on the consumers of financial information such as commercial data vendors, media, brokers, pension funds, commercial banks and anyone with an interest in providing investment information on their websites or online.
A web (data) portal is a website that brings information together from diverse sources in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displaying information often; the user can configure which ones to display depending on the need.
The new data dissemination developments are only part of a number of initiatives or programmes ZSE is working on as it strives to bring its operations in line with the prevailing modern global standards. Some of the initiatives to modernise the exchange's operations include the automated trading, which has been on ZSE's priority list for many years.
Local bourse chairperson Mrs Eve Gadzikwa said in a recent statement that even though "our organisation is a small institution, we are adopting a different approach in data dissemination, which has meant a significant input into data collection, implementing functionality that ensures we achieve our objectives".
"The ZSE recognises the role of the Internet in communications in investor relations and, as part of our capacity building exercise, we are now able to respond to the needs of stakeholders who have been looking for a mechanism to obtain almost real-time information at the click of a button," he said.
"For the ZSE to promote informed investment decisions, investors need to have full and immediate information and this data portal enables everyone to access any and all information on listed companies. In other markets, this information is either sold or is limited in terms of its availability to retail investors," Mrs Gadzikwa added.
