Story of the Day:
In the final week of May 2020 trading on the LuSE, Only three days recorded trades of which Tuesday’s equities trading was the best performing for the week. Five companies securities recorded trades. Read more
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Zambia is reviewing its 2020 budget after a reduction in revenue as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors, Secretary to the Treasury Fredson Yamba said on Thursday. Zambia’s budgeted revenue is estimated to fall short of target by close to 20% as a result of economic adjustments due to COVID-19, the ministry of finance said in April. Read more: Reuters
Government says it has released K6.73 billion for the month of May to finance developmental and other public service delivery programs in the country. Ministry of Finance Secretary to the Treasury, Fredson Yamba disclosed that debt service and dismantling of arrears received the highest lump sum of K2.86 billion while infrastructure programmes and rural electrification received the least amount of over K311 million. Read more: ZNBC
Labour and Social Security Minister Joyce Simukoko says Government has received numerous requests from companies to reduce staff by way of redundancies due to the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. Read more: ZNBC
In a recent development, the mines in Africa’s second largest copper producer will now remit taxes over and above mineral royalties in dollars. The Revenue Authority wrote to all mines effective 04 June, to remit all taxes in dollars and directly to the central bank. This is in a move to share up foreign exchange reserves that have plummeted to decade lows. Read more: The Business Telegraph
The Mine suppliers and contractors Association of Zambia has appealed to Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) to support and engage Konkola copper mines (KCM) in private over the $140 million the latter allegedly owes the power utility. Association president Augustine Mubanga says the deteriorating relationship between KCM and CEC if left unchecked can have far-reaching devastating effects on the economy and sustainability of the mine. Read more: Lusaka Times
Tobacco, a cash crop which sees about 90% of all its production volumes exported has potential to further grow and deliver over half a billion dollars in foreign exchange earnings for Zambia per annum once the bottlenecks are cleared out. The Tobacco Board of Zambia CEO James Kasongo told the said that to ensure the industry reaches its potential, there is need to urgently amend the outdated legislation. Read more: Zambian Business Times
International Business and Finance
Trump administration officials increasingly expect to spend up to $1 trillion in the next round of economic stimulus, according to people familiar with the matter, though action on a measure is unlikely until at least next month. Read more: Bloomberg
Eurozone bonds rallied and the euro surged on Thursday after the European Central Bank announced a bigger-than-expected boost to its stimulus package to tackle the economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis. The yield on 10-year Italian and Greek debt dropped sharply after the ECB said it would expand its bond-buying programme by €600bn and extend it until 2021. Read more: Financial Times
Luxury carmaker Bentley is to cut 1,000 jobs in the UK, about a quarter of its workforce. The move comes as the car industry faces a sharp drop in sales due to coronavirus. Bentley has also struggled to be profitable in recent years. Read more: BBC News
The U.S. will not likely want to “break” its so-called phase one trade deal with China, even though tensions between the two countries have escalated in recent weeks, a Morgan Stanley economist said on Friday. Read more: CNBC
Bloomberg is taking the opposite side of Goldman Sachs, saying that bitcoin could double to $20,000 this year, returning to 2017 levels. Last week, Goldman listed five reasons investors should avoid bitcoin. The most popular cryptocurrency has so many favorable fundamental and technical factors that “something needs to go really wrong for bitcoin to not appreciate.” Read more: Business Insider
Capital Markets Report
In 51 trades recorded yesterday, 968,172 shares were transacted yielding a market turnover of K6,779,503. Trading activity was recorded in Standard Chartered Zambia, Zambia Breweries, Zambeef and Zanaco. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) maintained its close at 4,013.14 points, as there were no share price movements. The market closed on a capitalization of K56,288,243,762 including Shoprite Holdings and K22,049,037,782 excluding Shoprite Holdings.
Chart of the Day:
