Bunhill: Booming Zimbabwe

FORGET the London stock market. True, it reached a record high last week. But the really adventurous investor prefers to fill his or her boots in Zimbabwe, where the Harare stock market is leaping like an over-excited okapi.

The industrial index, which was languishing at 940 in early June, has since rocketed through the 1,400 mark. Not bad for a bourse that Fortune magazine dubbed 'the worst performing in the world' last year.

The government recently relaxed the rules on foreign investment and cut capital gains tax. Foreign investors, mainly British, have injected Zdollars 13m ( pounds 1.3m) into Zimbabwe shares over the past two months, according to Mike Huggett, deputy chairman of the Harare exchange.

Unlike the London market, which doesn't seem to have much to do with the real economy, the Zimbabwe exchange is firmly rooted in real life. The reason given for the bull run? Good rains.