Story of the Day:
In the final week of the month it has been three consecutive weeks where the bond market has not recorded trades. The equities market recorded a 100% score to 0% on the bond market. Read more
Local Business and Finance Sponsored By Liquid Intelligent Technologies
Zambian President Edgar Lungu’s biggest selling point in the past two elections has turned into a liability in the lead-up to next week’s vote, making it his toughest challenge yet. His party has built thousands of miles of roads, airports and rural health-care facilities during its decade in power. The spending binge has left the southern African nation with about $13 billion of foreign debt and culminated in a default that’s made life harder for Zambia’s 18 million citizens. Read more: Bloomberg
The Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (ZIPAR) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Zambia Association of Manufacturers to promote sustainable economic development. Read more: ZNBC
Gold production at Kansanshi Mine has drastically reduced from about 130,000 ounces to 115,000 in the second quarter of this year due to a sharp rise in mineral royalty rates.
Currently, the mineral royalty rate varies depending on the price of copper on the international market. Read more: Zambia Daily Mail
Petroleum Transporters Association of Zambia (PTAZ) has appealed to Government to prosecute Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) for abrogating provisions of Statutory Instrument number 35 of 2021. Association secretary general Benson Tembo says recently Government directed that 50% of the fuel must be transported by locals but this has not come to pass. Read more: Lusaka Times
International Business and Finance
Nearly three dozen of the United States’ most influential business groups have asked President Joe Biden’s administration to restart trade talks with China and cut tariffs on imports. Read more: Reuters
The Nasdaq and S&P 500 closed at record levels on Thursday after a spate of strong corporate earnings and a further decline in U.S. unemployment claims last week, as investors weighed concerns of the surge of the Delta variant ahead of Friday’s job’s report. Read more: Reuters
Amazon has told its US corporate staff not to return to the office until next year as Covid continues to spread. The online shopping giant previously asked staff to work from home until 7 September, but will now extend this until 3 January 2022. Read more: BBC News
Zimbabwe’s exports rose by 31 percent to $2.02 billion between January and May this year compared to $1.53 billion during the same period last year, the state-owned Herald newspaper reported on Thursday. Read more: CGTN
Capital Markets Report Sponsored By ZCCM-IH
In 12 trades recorded yesterday, 16,591 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K205,602. A share price gain of K4.00 was recorded in AECI. A share price loss was recorded in Lafarge of K0.01. Trading activity was also recorded in Airtel, British American Tobacco Zambia, Pamodzi, and PUMA. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) closed at 4,623.82 points, 0.39% up from its previous close of 4,605.57 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K60,920,508,265 including Shoprite Holdings and K26,137,822,825 excluding Shoprite Holdings.
Chart of the Day: