Story of the Day:
As the new normal continues, Zambia’s leading airline, Proflight, says it has started recording an increase in customer demand on its local and international routes after months of steep declines. Read more
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Zambia missed a $42.5 million Eurobond coupon payment due yesterday, bringing it a step closer to becoming the first African nation to default since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation. Eurobond holders are due to vote next week on Zambia’s request for a 6-month interest payment deferral on its $3 billion in notes. Read more: Bloomberg
A record 35 emerging market sovereigns have been downgraded by Fitch so far in 2020, as the world’s poorest countries struggle with the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report by the ratings agency on Thursday. Fitch expects Zambia to be the fifth country to default on its government debt in 2020, after creditors rejected the country’s request for a number of its debt payments to be deferred until April 2021. Read more: Nasdaq
The United States government has announced a K39 billion five-year development program for Zambia. US Charge d’ Affairs David Young says the program will be utilised in the area of General Education, Tourism, health and agriculture. Read more: ZNBC
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Minister of External Trade, Jean-Lucien Bussa Tongba says his country and Zambia should have the best trade portfolio in the region. Mr. Tongba says this is because the two countries share two mining provinces, Katanga in the DRC and Copperbelt on the Zambian side. Read more: ZNBC
Libyan telecoms investor LAP GreenN is threatening to seize Zambia’s international assets because it says the government owes it US$380 million. The debt dates back to Zambia’s nationalisation of Zamtel in 2012, a year after LAP GreenN bought the company from the previous administration for $257 million. Read more: The North Africa Post
International Business and Finance
Boris Johnson will decide on the “next steps” for post-Brexit trade talks after an EU summit later this week, Downing Street has said. The PM expressed “disappointment” at recent progress in a call with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen yesterday. Mr Johnson has previously set Thursday’s meeting of EU leaders as the deadline for a deal. Mrs von der Leyen said the EU wanted a deal, “but not at any price”. Read more: BBC News
Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs reported impressive third-quarter results Wednesday morning. Profits nearly doubled to $3.6 billion and easily topped Wall Street’s forecasts. Revenue rose 30% from a year ago and also surpassed analysts’ estimates. Read more: CNN
Morgan Stanley beat analysts’ estimates for third-quarter revenue and profit, fueled by better-than-expected results from the firm’s Wall Street trading operations. The bank said that profit jumped 25% from a year earlier to $2.72 billion, or $1.66 per share, exceeding the $1.28 estimate of analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. It generated revenue of $11.7 billion, 16% higher than a year earlier and a billion dollars more than the estimate. Read more: CNBC
France and the Netherlands have proposed stricter EU rules to oversee large technology firms, such as Alphabet, Facebook and Amazon. In a joint document, seen by CNBC and due to be sent to the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, the two countries suggested that an EU authority should be able to control the market position of these large tech platforms. Read more: CNBC
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In 37 trades recorded yesterday, 8,391 shares were transacted yielding a market turnover of K70,753. As hare price loss of 0.39 was recorded in Real Estate Investments Zambia. Trading activity was also recorded in AEL Zambia, Standard Chartered Bank Ltd, ZCCM and Zanaco. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) maintained its close at 3,811.93 points, as there were no share price movements The market closed on a capitalization of K55,896,157,023 including Shoprite Holdings and K21,656,951,043 excluding Shoprite Holdings.
Chart of the Day: