Story of the Day:
In the penultimate and final weeks of 2019, the corporate bond market continued with its dominance over the equities market scoring 98% over 2% of the sales in the Zambian capital markets. Read more
Local Business and Finance
The first business day of 2020 was marred by a deep subscription haircut in the Kwacha treasury bill sale as the central bank only raised K157million of the K950million on offer. This outcome is comes after the dismal last bond sale of 2019 where the Bank of Zambia sold only K58million of the K1.1billion of assets on offer. Read more: The Business Telegraph
Prices of cement on the market have gone up by at least 20 percent depending on the brand. Read more: Zambian Observer
Zambia’s annual rate of inflation is expected to remain in double-digits this year owing to the hiked electricity tariffs and fuel pump prices, says FNB Zambia. Read more: News Diggers
The Bankers Association of Zambia (BAZ) says non-performing loans were a major challenge for the sector in 2019 despite improving to 9.1 per cent from 9.5 per cent in October. Read more: News Diggers
International and Finance
A U.S. Federal Reserve study explains how tariffs implemented in 2018 fueled job loss and increased input costs across US manufacturers. While the duties did provide some benefits to domestic firms, the negative effects outweighed the positive ones and harmed an already failing sector. Read more: Business Insider
Google Health and DeepMind have created an AI tool capable of spotting breast cancer with as much accuracy as a human radiologist, according to a new paper published in Nature on Wednesday. Read more: Business Insider
Hong Kong protest fallout has hit HSBC and the London Stock Exchange. The London Stock Exchange is at risk of losing Chinese business because of Beijing’s anger at Britain’s stance on the protests in Hong Kong. Read more: CNN
Global stock markets jumped on the first day of trading in 2020 as a shot of Chinese stimulus and economic data drove a gauge of world equity performance to the latest in a series of record highs, while the dollar snapped a four-day losing streak. Read more: Reuters
Manufacturing in the U.S. and Asia showed signs of stabilization as 2019 drew to a close, although Europe’s industrial output offered few signs of a rebound. Read more: Wall Street Journal
Capital Markets Report
In 38 trade recorded yesterday, 14,262 shares were transacted, yielding a market turnover of K13,591. Trading activity was recorded in Copperbelt Energy Corporation, Lafarge, Standard Chartered Bank Limited and Zanaco. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) maintained it previous closes of 4,264.51 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K56,516,055,827 including Shoprite Holdings and K22,276,849,847 excluding Shoprite Holdings.
Chart of the Day: