ESE EQUITIES MARKET CAP UNCHANGED

MBABANE – The market capitalisation for equities in the Eswatini Stock Exchange (ESE) has recorded no gain in the past two weeks.

The timid movement is attributed to the buy and hold strategy used by traders locally. The strategy is advantageous to investors looking to benefit from dividends but further contributes to the slow movement of the local market. Noticeable changes were observed in some of the equities acquired by new businesses thus enabling the market capitalisation to increase.

Recorded

The all share index of Swazi Empowerment Limited (SEL) recorded a 2.7 per cent increase about two weeks ago. SEL had a market capitalisation of E666 000 000 last week, which has since increased to E684 500 000. ESE’s overall market capitalisation remained stagnant at E4 293 186 644. This was because Nedbank Eswatini yielded no gains which forced their market cap to remain at E298 770 363. The Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation Limited (RSSC) had the highest market capitalisation of E1 464 467 104. At that rate, RSSC was likely to have a larger share of dividends in the current financial period. Dividends are now paid directly to bank accounts. ESE announced that dividends from local companies listed in their markets should be paid directly to client’s bank accounts. ESE said this was in line with the Central Bank of Eswatini’s media statement issued on July 20, 2021, announcing the elimination of cheques as a mode of payment effective from January 2022.

Buying

A majority of investors in Eswatini both as individuals and companies use the Buy and Hold Strategy when buying stock in public listed companies under ESE. They seek out undervalued stocks and buy them with the intent to hold on to these positions for months, if not years, with the intent to benefit from the company’s dividends. This was mentioned by the ESE analysis department in an interview with this publication. They said they had seven enlisted companies under ESE but most investors use the buy and hold strategy which was beneficiary to the dividends. ESE said investors came with the mantra of ‘buy low, sell high’ and sought out undervalued stocks, and bought them with the intent to hold on to these positions for months, if not years.

Supersede

They said this was because investors believed the company’s management and performance superseded all the chaos and flux that was inherent in the market, and in time, the stock would reward them with a large return on their capital. “A buy and hold strategy is a long-term, passive strategy in which investors keep a relatively stable portfolio over time, regardless of short-term fluctuations”, said ESE. SEL declared an interim dividend of E38.3 million to ordinary shareholders registered as such in the company’s share registry at the close of business on or before May 20, 2022. SEL also declared a final dividend of E23.7 million to ordinary shareholders registry as such in the company’s share register at the close of business on or before February 7, 2022.

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