Story of the Day:
The only shoemaker listed on the Lusaka Securities and Exchange, Bata Show Company, has advised that it will be reporting weaker financial performance at half-year 2020 due to a myriad of challenges, according to a statement from the company. Read more
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Glencore will likely sell its entire 73.1% stake in Zambia’s Mopani Copper Mines to the government’s mining investment arm ZCCM-IH rather than becoming a minority stakeholder, two sources with direct knowledge told Reuters. Read more: Reuters
Zambia’s annual inflation rate for August has slowed down to 15.5 percent from last month’s 15.8 percent owing a fall in food prices. Read more: ZNBC
China maintained the second position as Zambia’s major source of imports during the month of July, the country’s statistics agency said on Thursday. The Asian nation accounted for 18.7 percent of Zambia’s imports in July, according to figures released by the Zambia Statistics Agency. Read more: Xinhua
President Edgar Lungu says the economy is almost shutting down in some sectors due to the COVID-19 pandemic so it is imperative that he takes control of the situation, as the man in charge. Read more: News Diggers
Zambia’s celebrated think tank the Economics Association of Zambia – EAZ officially launched its National Economic Summit – NES19 brainchild the Citizen Entrepreneur Development Programme – CEDP in conjunction with the Africa Green Resources – AGR. Read more: The Business Telegraph
The Luapula Provincial Administration says it will support the use of manual labour during the early stages of the new Luongo Manganese Mine in Chipili District. Provincial Minister Nickson Chilangwa said this is because it is a source of income for the local people. Read more: The Independent Observer
International Business and Finance
The African Development Bank (AfDB) said on Thursday its board had re-elected Akinwumi Adesina for a second five-year term as AfDB president. Read more: Reuters
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced a major policy shift Thursday to “average inflation targeting.” That means the central bank will be more inclined to allow inflation to run higher than the standard 2% target before hiking interest rates. Read more: CNBC
Engineering giant Rolls-Royce, which makes jet engines, has reported record losses after the coronavirus pandemic caused demand for air travel to slump. The firm announced a pre-tax loss of £5.4bn for the first half of this year. CEO Warren East told the BBC he did not expect demand to recover to late-2019 levels for five years. Read more: BBC News
The US retail giant Walmart has said it will team up with Microsoft to make a bid for the US operations of TikTok. Walmart told the BBC it thought a deal with the Chinese video-sharing app would help it expand its operations. Read more: BBC News
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There were no trades recorded yesterday. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) maintained its close at 3,842.39 points, as there were no share price movements. The market closed on a capitalization of K55,545,036,766 including Shoprite Holdings and K21,305,830,786 excluding Shoprite Holdings.
Chart of the Day: