The Harare bourse started off from where it left last year as it began the year on a high note with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s much-awaited recent economic scheme, Operation Sunrise II, having no impact on the performance of the equities market. The gloomy inflation outlook would also inspire the ZSE to record levels, said leading market watcher Kingdom Stockbrokers.”In the outlook, we expect the stock market to remain bullish as there are few investment options and that the inflation rate outlook remains bleak,” the company said in its first analysis of the bourse this year. The ZSE has emerged a favourite with investors aiming to hedge against Zimbabwe’s runaway inflation, officially at 8 000 percent, the highest in the world.Johannesburg-based analyst Luke Zunga maintained that in line with stock exchanges that operate in inflationary environments, the rally on stocks in the Zimbabwean bourse was not a surprising trend but an anticipated development as investors evaded the galloping inflation. The Southern African country is experiencing an economic catastrophe highlighted by record inflation, the near collapse of the formal sector, a dire shortage of basic commodities and foreign currency as well as ever rising unemployment. Own correspondent
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