Story of the Day:
Emirates SkyCargo has signed an agreement with UNICEF to prioritise the transport of COVID-19 vaccines, essential medicines, medical devices and other critical supplies to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more
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Zambia’s Eurobonds surged to their highest since March, when the government signaled it would restructure external debts, after Barclays Plc economists predicted holders might face losses much smaller than reflected in market pricing, reports Bloomberg. The southern African nation’s $1 billion in notes due 2024 advanced as much as 2.2% to 58 cents on the dollar, extending their gains this month to 8.8%. Read more: Zambia Reports
Commercial banks’ average lending rates on loan facilities marginally dropped by only 0.6 percentage points to 25.1 per cent by the end of last year, mainly in response to a sustained low Monetary Policy Rate (MPR). Read more: News Diggers
Government has reaffirmed its commitment towards curbing further hiking of prices of goods and services. Commerce, Trade and Industry Minister Christopher Yaluma says government is concerned with the sharp increase of prices for basic products. He pointed out that drastic measures have been put in place to mitigate the price hikes. Read more: ZNBC
The Bank of Zambia Governor (BOZ) Christopher Mvunga said that the Central Banked remains resolute to purchase more gold deposits to enhance the country’s reserves. Mr Mvunga explained that BoZ has since purchased 47 kilograms of gold from the Zambia Gold Company Limited, under the auspice of ZCCM Investments Holdings. Read more: Lusaka Times
International Business and Finance
The African Development Bank (AfDB) on Wednesday said Japan had signed a 73.6 billion yen ($668 million) loan agreement to help replenish the lender’s main development fund. Read more: Ghana Web
Huawei is turning to technology for pig farmers as it deals with tough sanctions on its smartphones. The Chinese telecoms giant was stopped from accessing vital components after the Trump administration labelled it a threat to US national security. In response to struggling smartphone sales, Huawei is looking at other sources of revenue for its technology. Read more: BBC News
The U.S. economy could lose more than $1 trillion worth of production and long-term global competitiveness if the White House pursues a sharp separation with China, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Rhodium Group. Read more: CNBC
Barclays has resumed modest shareholder payouts after a year-long hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, setting expectations other British lenders will follow suit when they report 2020 earnings in the next few days. The resumption came as Barclays’ profit fell by half, much less than forecast as a strong performance by its investment bank offset provisions against bad loans from the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more: Reuters
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In 27 trades recorded yesterday, 10,534 shares were transacted yielding a market turnover of K24,599. Trading activity was recorded in AEL Zambia and Standard Chartered Zambia. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) maintained its close of 3,971.18 points, as there were no share price movements. The market closed on a capitalization of K57,610,286,783 including Shoprite Holdings and K23,376,515,598 excluding Shoprite Holdings
Chart of the Day: