Story of the Day:
When the coronavirus was first detected, the assumption was that it will start and end with China. However, on the 12th of March 2020, it had been declared a global pandemic. After more than a year into the pandemic, the virus has spread throughout the world, altered humans’ way of life, transformed the way we conducted commerce and transactions, Read more
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The Patents and Companies Registration Agency (PACRA) has registered over 15,000 businesses in the first half of 2021. This reflects an 18.7% increase as compared to 12,890 during the same period last year. Read more: ZNBC
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has confirmed that they have not yet approved the transaction between Huaxin Investment Company Limited and Lafarge Zambia Plc as the case is still under review. Lafarge Zambia still has a pending case with the Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal – CCPT. Read more: Zambian Business Times
Zambia’s energy giant – ZESCO Limited is working towards making Zambia a net exporter of electricity for the Southern African region by the year 2025. This will make the power utility to become a major contributor to forex earnings for the country which is key to stabilizing the Kwacha. Read more: Zambian Business Times
Zambia’s desire of reducing dependency on copper exports to drive the economy is gaining momentum as evidenced by the over US$3 million increase in the export of horticulture. The horticulture subsector in 2020 recorded export earnings amounting to US$12.69 million compared to US$9.96 million in 2019. Read more: Zambia Daily Mail
International Business and Finance
African startups have raised more in the first half of 2021 than they raised in the first half of 2019 and 2020 combined. The report noted that startups on the continent had raised a whopping $1.19 billion in funding, with deals worth $1 million and above accounting for about 95% ($1.14 bn) of the total funding raised. Read more: Business Insider
Botswana’s annual inflation rate remains above the central bank’s short to medium term target of 3 to 6 percent, parastatal statistical organization Statistics Botswana said on Thursday. The annual inflation rate rose to 8.2 percent in June 2021, an increase of 2.0 percentage points on the May rate of 6.2 percent, it said. Read more: CGTN
India’s central bank has barred Mastercard indefinitely from issuing new debit or credit cards to domestic customers. The Reserve Bank of India has accused the company of violating data storage laws. The bank said Mastercard had not complied with rules requiring foreign card networks to store data on Indian payments exclusively in India. Read more: BBC News
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission says Amazon is selling hazardous products to its customers. The federal safety watchdog is suing Amazon to stop. Among the products cited in the suit are carbon monoxide detectors that fail to alarm, numerous children’s pajamas that could catch fire and nearly 400,000 hair dryers that could electrocute people if dropped in water. Read more: CNN
There’s a new super-unicorn in the United Kingdom. Revolut has been valued at $33 billion in a new fundraising round led by SoftBank and Tiger Global Management, the London-based digital banking startup said in a statement on Thursday. Read more: CNN
Capital Markets Report Sponsored By ZCCM-IH
In 25 trades recorded yesterday 17,177 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K62,257. Trading activity was recorded in Airtel, Madison Financial Services, National Breweries, Pamodzi, Standard Chartered Zambia, ZCCM, ZAMEFA, Zanaco, Zambia Sugar and ZAFFICO. The LuSE All Share index (LASI) maintained its close at 4,638.75 points, as there were no share price movements. The market closed on a capitalization of K60,447,619,707 including Shoprite Holdings and K26,202,978,933 excluding Shoprite Holdings.
Chart of the Day: