Market dealers and analysts say automation of trade on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) will attract more investors and lead to more trades at a time when telecoms firm such as Econet Wireless, is one of the stocks foreign investors are mostly interested in.

Zimbabwe is now finalising the process to automate trade on the ZSE, whose turnover for the five month period to end May fell 40% to $122 million.

"Its been long overdue and we are lagging behind other peers in the region. The old fashioned open call system for trade dealings is laborious and discourages investors.

"Digitisation or automation of trade will help attract more investors and because time is saved volumes will also increase," said economic analyst, Moses Moyo.

ZSE chief executive officer, Alban Chirume said at a briefing last week that the automation system for the Zimbabwean stock market will go live next month as it is currently being installed, with testing expected to take place in the next few days.

The ZSE awarded the contract to install the Capizar Automated Trading System last year and progress has stalled, with the bourse initially saying it would have migrated to the new platform by March this year.

"We have to do a lot of paper work using the open call system. Technology enhances efficiencies and informs investors on time regarding goings on; automation is now the order of the day everywhere," said one trader on the ZSE on Monday.

“The major backbone of the hardware is complete. The software should be in place latest June 5 in terms of being loaded onto the servers,” Chirume said.