Story of the Day:
The trading bell for Zambia’s first initial public offering (IPO) in 5 years finally took place on Wednesday 19th February 2020 with the tree growing company listing at Two Kwacha Six ngwee per share (K2.06) the 400 million shares issued yielding a market capitalization of K824 million in wealth for shareholders. This makes ZAFFICO the 7th “richest” company listed on the Lusaka securities and exchange (LuSE). Read more
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World Bank Executive Director for the Africa Group 1 Constituency Anne Kabagambe is positive that the actions being taken by the Zambian government to restore fiscal health and stabilise the economy will bear fruit. Read more: Zambia Reports
Standards and Poor’s rating agency on Feb. 21, lowered Zambia’s long-term sovereign credit rating to ‘CCC’ from ‘CCC+’ with negative outlook on account of rising vulnerabilities to debt repayment obligations. Also lowered was the Transfer & Convertibility (T&C) assessment to ‘CCC’ from ‘CCC+’. Read more: The Business Telegraph
Kalumbila Minerals Limited has awarded a 6.5 percent salary increment across the board for 2020 to its employees, a year after work stoppage disrupted operations in January last year. This follows the successful conclusion of salary negotiations with three mine unions namely NUMAW, Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) and United Mine Workers Union of Zambia (UMUZ). Read more: Lusaka Times
Zamtel has today announced the launch of non – expiry mobile data bundles in line with the directive by the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA). Read more: Lusaka Times
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The 2020 national budget aims, in the face of the cataloged challenges that the country is going through, to stimulate the domestic economy. Read more
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French President Emmanuel Macron has said he is “not sure” a UK-EU trade deal will be struck by 31 December, the end of the Brexit transition period. Mr Macron said negotiations starting in March will be “tense”, with fishing rights a key point of contention. Read more: BBC News
U.S. officials will have a better idea of how the coronavirus outbreak will impact the economy in “three or four weeks,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday. Read more: CNBC
Europe knows it fell behind the United States and China on the technologies that dominated the past decade. Now it has a plan to catch up. The European Union unveiled plans to create a single market for data that will help its companies compete on the next round of tech innovations and curb the power of data giants such as Facebook and Google. Read more: CNN
Global shares and oil slid early today (Monday) while safe-haven gold surged as the spread of the coronavirus outside China darkened the outlook for world growth with infections and deaths rising in South Korea, Italy and the Middle East. Read more: Reuters
South Africa’s National Treasury will try to trim its swollen budget deficit by raising revenue through personal income and excise tax hikes at its budget review on Feb. 26, a Reuters poll found on Friday. Read more: Reuters
Namibia has become the first African country to export red meat to the United States, following nearly two decades of negotiations. The Southern African nation is set to export 860 tonnes of various beef cuts in 2020 to the United States, rising to 5,000 tonnes by 2025. Read more: Africa News
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In 2 trades recorded on Friday, 616 shares were transacted yielding a market turnover of K1,004. Trading activity was recorded in Standard Chartered Bank Limited. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) maintained its close at 4,253.85 points, as there were no share price movements. The market closed on a capitalization of K57,334,443,581 including Shoprite Holdings and K23,095,237,601 excluding Shoprite Holdings.
Chart of the Day: