The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange recorded its lowest foreign inflows in 2016 since dollarisation because of liquidity challenges which also saw banks delaying the remittance of investment proceeds.
Latest statistics from the stock exchange show that shares worth a staggering $140,3 million were sold compared to foreign purchases, which amounted to $60,2 million over the 12 month period.
In comparison, $125,3 million worth of shares were bought by foreigners in 2015 while shares valued $129,6 million were sold over the same period, reflecting marginal difference in sales and purchases.
The outflow of foreign investors from the local bourse due to the weak prospects in the domestic economy and the negative impact on companies, saw nearly 800 million shares offloaded by foreigners.
In contrast, buyers purchased marginally short of 300 million shares over the same period, reflecting the low interest in stocks on low prospects of profitability in an economy weighed by a number of issues.
In total, just over 1,5 billion shares valued at $193 million were sold last year compared to 2,22 billion shares valued at about $228 million that exchange hands between January 2015 and December 2015.
The ZSE market capitalisation of just over $4 billion hides the predominantly southward direction the market travelled from the beginning of the year, before a sudden rally lifted indices in October.
The market opened at $2,79 billion and hovered largely within than range for the better part of the 9 month period before a sudden burst in October, which market analysts attributed to investors shifting investments to the stock market due to monetary policy concerns.
