The effect of dollarization on the performance of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange
Date
2016
Authors
Ben, Mabel
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Abstract
Zimbabwe as a country went through severe economic crisis between the years 2000 and 2008. Hyperinflation, ill conception of policies by a desperate government that was in panic because of the shock that the crisis had on the economy, a declining exchange rate were among the serious challenges that were facing the economy. As investors and ordinary citizens scrambled for ways to store the value of their wealth, they all trooped to the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) to buy shares. As the demand of shares increased, so did share prices. Share prices had stopped to reflect economic fundamentals as the stock exchange became a mere market place of raising money.
Stock markets have several functions which are crucial to an economy among them giving support to and facilitation of the growth of key sectors as well as provide accurate signals for resource allocation (Aurangzeb, 2012). Darskuviene (2010) says stock markets act as barometers of economies; in particular stock market movements tend to be leading indicators which means that they provide indications of likely future changes in the level of activity in the economy as a whole. Contrary to these crucial functions, the Zimbabwe Sock Exchange had become a repository of trapped local savings as Zimbabwean citizens scrambled for shares. The scrambling for shares was either for speculative purposes, store of wealth or just a place of raising fast cash as hyperinflation became a daily phenomenon. The prices of shares are supposed to reflect economic fundamentals, all things being equal but for the case of Zimbabwe, the stock prices were now reflecting activities of the ‘black market”.
Money has several characteristics that it carries among them durability, hard to counterfeit, and stability in value and one of its major function is to act as a store of value. The Zimbabwean dollar had seized to serve any of the above mentioned functions as hyperinflation corroded the value of the currency.
In 2009 Zimbabwean government adopted full dollarization as the Zimbabwean dollar had become useless as a medium of exchange. This saw the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange start to quote prices of shares in the United States Dollar (USD). This research examined the effect of dollarization on the performance of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. It attempts to measure and
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assess using empirical models the extent to which the adoption of dollarization enhanced the performance of the bourse. The study uses two sample periods namely the pre-dollarization era and the post dollarization era representing the years 2003 to 2008 and 2009 to 2014 respectively. The sample is made up of sixty two listed companies that make up the Zimbabwe stock Exchange industrial index, which is used as the benchmark index. Two soft wares have been used in carry out this research namely Eviews 8 and SPSS. These were used to in trend analysis, mean difference analysis and regression or correlation analysis. The analysis was carried out using these three techniques in order to assess the effect of dollarization on the performance of the ZSE.
The results gathered from this research shows that dollarization has enhanced the performance of the ZSE. Shares prices have stabilized as compared to the pre-dollarization era where they would change a number of times in one day. This stability in share prices was brought about by the use of the US dollar to quote shares because the dollar is a more stable currency. It was found that market capitalization has significantly improved in the dollarization era. There is also strong evidence showing that Price Earnings ratio has decreased significantly which is a good for the Zimbabwean stock market. Turnover ratio did not show any statistical significance in terms of performance. Its correlation with dollarization was negative. This is due to the liquidity challenges that the country is experiencing as well as political uncertainty which is making the stock market unattractive to foreign investors. Therefore, I recommend further research on alternative ways of solving the problems that the country is facing for example de-dollarization and strategies that bring about monetary policy freedom.
Description
Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Finance & Investment in the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management Wits business school at the University of the Witwatersrand, 2016
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Citation
Ben, Mabel (2016) The effect of dollarization on the performance of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, <https://hdl.handle.net/10539/23861>