Standard Chartered Bank and Barclays Bank, two of the large cap counters, whose shares dominate the domestic board went down by 1.39 percent and 1.52 percent respectively last week. They further lost ground in the free fall which began at the start of the last quarter last year.Analysts say that at the beginning of the self-correction the sentiment in the market was that Stanchart along with the other banks were actually overvalued."The fall in the share prices is actually driven more by technicalities rather than fundamentals which lead to a fair value readjustment of the share prices.
Even a rough look at the price to earning ratios will show you that banks have the highest figures by far in comparison with other counters that might probably have the same earnings base as the them," said an analyst with a local Stockbroking firm. Barclays and Stanchart have lost close to half of their value in the bear run. Barclays has fallen from around 1,000 thebe in September last year to 650 thebe by close of trade last Friday. Standard Chartered share price has taken a nose-dive from around 2,800 thebe in September to 1,775 thebe last Friday.In the same period, the DCI has lost close to 20 percent of its value having hovered in the region of over 9,700 points in the third quarter of 2007.Although the banks' losses pulled down the DCI last week, the biggest slump of the week was recorded on the Foreign Board with A-Cap leading the pack at 7.87 percent while IAMGOLD fell by 4.58 percent.On the opposite end, Aviva was the highest gainer going up 12.80 percent possibly on the positive news of an announcement of more coal resources at its Mmamantswe project.RPC data was the second largest gainer at 5.26 percent.
