Zimbabwe’s gold miners drive dollar bourse surge

ZIMBABWE’S dollar-denominated stock exchange has posted remarkable gains as gold producers benefit from the precious metal’s stellar performance this year, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.The Victoria Falls Stock Exchange benchmark index has climbed 45%, pushing the market’s valuation to $1.8bn by late September, buoyed by a 48% rise in gold prices over the past twelve months.Established in late 2020 to attract capital for mining ventures, the VFEX now hosts 17 companies, said Bloomberg News.London-based Kavango Resources, which operates in Filabusi in south-eastern Zimbabwe, joined as the third gold miner last month, alongside Caledonia Mining Corp and Padenga Holdings, the latter also dealing in crocodile skins, it said.Lloyd Mlotshwa, research head at IH Securities, said mining shares had effectively become gold investments by proxy. “These companies invested well in time to catch the gold rush and have also ramped up production when the timing is right,” he said.The dollar-only exchange has gained additional momentum from a scarcity of ZiGs, Zimbabwe’s local currency, prompting investors to abandon the main Harare bourse in favour of the VFEX. “ZiG liquidity is weak,” Mlotshwa noted. “Investors resort instead to using their dollars.”Asset managers and pension funds, which had previously diversified into property and other alternatives, now face mounting pressure to reconsider their allocations as VFEX-listed companies demonstrate “real value”, said Mlotshwa.The post Zimbabwe’s gold miners drive dollar bourse surge appeared first on Miningmx.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com