Tight liquidity conditions prevailed in the market with thin trades across the board during the greater part of the week. A small relief came on Friday after Primetime, Choppies and BIHL traded P10.7mn worth of shares between them. Primetime which is going through a rights issue traded some Primetime Rights worth P1.4mn on Friday, pushing the weekly trades to 33mn shares worth P16.4mn. This is down from 6.9mn shares worth P82.6mn which traded the previous week.
Turnstar was at the apex of the gainers up 0.3% to close at 322 thebe. The property giant continues to break new ground after it became the first listed property stock to acquire a property in Dubai. This is a big milestone for the property giant as this will give it further diversification in terms of geographic location as well as a currency hedge. This property is expected to give a yield of approximately 10% per annum. Wilderness Holdings, a specialist luxury safari operator with presence in over 10 countries also gained 0.2% to close at 523 thebe, a week after releasing a fair set of final results for the year ended 28 February 2017.
Revenue grew strongly by 18% to P1.1bn, while operating profit grew by just 5% to P208mn, weighed by foreign exchange losses which amounted to P11.3mn from gains of P26mn during the previous year. Profit before tax fell 16% to P101mn (FY16: P120.3mn) due to increases in finance cost (116%) and unrealised foreign exchange loss on loans. A dividend of 16.5 thebe was declared payable on the 26th of June.
On the downside, Botswana Diamonds was the biggest loser, down 9.5% to close at 19 thebe after trading 40,000 shares worth P7,600. Botswana Diamonds is a diamond exploration and project development company that holds exploration licences in Botswana. It was incorporated in 2010 as Botswana Exploration plc to acquire the assets and interests of African Diamonds. Other losses were in Lucara and Letshego. (Motswedi Securities)