Story of the Day:
In the final of July 2020 bond trading, bonds of total face value of K88,749,000 were transacted in 11 trades, yielding a market value sales of K43,416,000. Four days recorded trades of which Tuesdays’ bond trading was the best performing for the week. Week five of July has been the best performing week. Read more
Local Business and Finance Sponsored By Liquid Telecom
Against all odds Atlas Mara Zambia Limited put up a stellar performance with a second quarter earnings rally surpassing all banks across the industry. Atlas Mara’s 2Q20 after tax earnings sprinted to K69.5mln from merely above breaking even in the first quarter rallying its 1H20 to K71.2mln (PAT) morphing from an after tax loss of K12.3mln at 1H19 period. Read more: The Business Telegraph
Standard Chartered Bank’s half year earnings came under immense pressure from rising sovereign risk adjusted impairments and rising margin squeeze related drivers. Stancharts 1H20 after tax earnings slid deeper into loss zone to K225.5mln from a profit of K123.0mln a year earlier same time. On a quarterly basis 2Q20 after tax earnings narrowed 78.7% to K39.7mln (loss). Read more: The Business Telegraph
The Bank of Zambia says preliminary investigations into Comsave Credit Union and ONO Savings and Credit Association have revealed that the two institutions were collecting and lending money from members of the public as independent administrators under the disguise of Village Banking. Read more: ZNBC
ZACCI has called on the private sector to refrain from complaining about Zambia’s ongoing economic challenges and take advantage of the available financing facilities through various institutions. Read more: News Diggers
FNB Zambia has announced the availability of the Private Clients offering which completes the Retail Banking suite of products and combines both debit and credit facilities in one signature card. FNB Zambia CEO Bydon Longwe says the offering also gives qualifying customers the requisite level of service and access to manage their finances. Read more: Zambian Business Times
International Business and Finance
BP has halved its shareholder dividend and posted a record $6.7 billion quarterly loss after the coronavirus pandemic hit global demand for oil. Read more: The New York Times
Donald Trump says the government should get a cut from the sale of TikTok’s US unit if an American firm buys it. The US president said he made a demand for a “substantial portion” of the purchase price in a phone call at the weekend with Microsoft’s boss. He also warned he will ban the app, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, on 15 September if there is no deal. Read more: BBC News
Argentina’s government announced early Tuesday morning it had reached a deal with creditors to restructure $65 billion in sovereign debt, drawing a close to months of negotiations rife with gridlock and disagreement. Read more: CNBC
Japan’s Sony Corp on reported a 1.1% decline in first-quarter operating profit, much milder than market estimates as its gaming business thrived while consumers locked down at home looked for entertainment and downloaded more games. The electronics and entertainment firm posted April-June profit of 228.4 billion yen ($2.15 billion), versus 230.9 billion yen a year prior. Read more: CNBC
German drugs and pesticides group Bayer slumped to a 9.5 billion euro ($11.2 billion) net loss in the second quarter, mainly reflecting charges to settle disputes inherited with its $63 billion takeover of Monsanto. Read more: Reuters
Capital Markets Report Sponsored By ZCCM-IH
In 17 trades recorded yesterday, 39,930 shares were transacted yielding a market turnover of K88,034. Trading activity was recorded in Airtel, Lafarge and Zambia Sugar. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) maintained its close at 3,865.40 points, as there were no share price movements. The market closed on a capitalization of K55,645,209,233 including Shoprite Holdings and K21,406,003,253 excluding Shoprite Holdings.
Chart of the Day: