DAR ES SALAAM, Aug. 11 -- TANZANIAs capital markets have entered August with mixed signals, as equity trading activity weakened sharply while demand for long-term government securities remained exceptionally strong. The contrasting trends point to a market becoming more selective, with investors closely watching interest rates, foreign participation and major corporate actions for direction in the coming weeks.

On the equity side, total market turnover declined by 60.07 per cent week-on-week to 25.77bn/-, from 64.53bn/- recorded in the previous week. The decline was accompanied by a 47.95 per cent fall in the volume of shares traded, from 15.88 million shares to 8.27 million shares.

The sharp contraction suggests that investors became m...