Story of the Day:
The Board of Directors of ZCCM-Investments Holdings Plc (the “Company” or “ZCCM-IH”) hereby advises the Shareholders of the Company that the Earnings Per Share (“EPS”) for the Group and Company for the nine-month financial period ended 31 December 2019 is expected to be approximately 32% lower and 242% higher respectively, than the financial year ended 31 March 2019. Read more
Local Business and Finance Sponsored By Liquid Intelligent Technologies
Chinese cement giant Huanxin Cement has acquired majority stake and taken over the troubled French local unit, Lafarge Zambia. According to a stock market note availed to the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, the Chinese firm has acquired 75% of all of Lafarge group interest in the Zambian cement manufacturer. Read more: Zambian Business Times
According to the Bank of Zambia monthly statistics on its website, Mobile Money – MoMo has remained the leading conduit for payments for 1Q21 recording a growth of 81.0% year on year to K33.9-billion, while Electronic Funds Transfer – EFT expanded 23.0% to K21.6-billion. Point of Sale – POS rallied 74.0% to K10.4-billion, Automated Teller Machine – ATM transactions rose 15.0% to K13.11-billion as cheque transactions shrivelled 12.0% to K2.2-billion. interbank transactions despite being the largest in magnitude at K304.4-billion grew 17.0%. Read more: The Business Telegraph
Zambia’s High Commissioner to India Judith Kapijimpanga has urged investors to be environmentally sensitive as they invest in Zambia. Mrs. Kapijimpanga added that there was no need to continue with a business-as-usual attitude but concerted effort by all stakeholders to play an active role in ecosystem restoration. Read more: Zambia Reports
Vice President, Inonge Wina says mineral resources found in various chiefdoms around the country should benefit the people living within the area. Mrs Wina told traditional leaders in North-Western province that government has stopped issuing mining licenses centrally but will do so with the consent of chiefs. Read more: ZNBC
International Business and Finance
The plan of adoption of central bank digital currency (CDBC) by several African countries has been on the rise due to the promise of a more efficient financial system Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies have to offer. Suppose this goes on for the next few years; it is expected that the traditional banking system will likely collapse as people will give up on the conventional banking system and turn to cryptocurrencies to carry out their transactions. Read more: Business Insider
South Africa’s government announced Friday it would sell a majority stake in cash-strapped flag carrier South African Airways (SAA) to a consortium that includes the operator of a local budget airline. The airline, which is emerging from a rescue plan, will effectively be privatized as investors will hold a majority stake. Read more: CGTN
Kenya has received a $750 million loan from the World Bank to support its budget and help the East African economy recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the multilateral lender said on Friday. The Kenyan government has been pushing hard to secure foreign funding to fill a wide budget deficit before its financial year closes at the end of this month. Read more: CGTN
Tech giants including Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google could be forced to make sweeping changes to their businesses under a series of new bills introduced Friday by House lawmakers targeting the companies’ economic dominance. The bipartisan legislation marks Congress’s most significant push to date to rein in Silicon Valley, in some cases taking direct aim at tech giants’ underlying business models. Read more: CNN
Capital Markets Report Sponsored By ZCCM-IH
In 55 trades recorded on Friday 76,537 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K183,531. A share price gain was recorded in Real Estate Investments Zambia of K0.20 and in Zambeef of K0.03. Trading activity was also recorded in AEL Zambia, ATEL, BATA, BAT Zambia, CEC, FQM, Investrust, Madison Financial Services, National Breweries, PUMA, Standard Chartered Zambia, Shoprite, ZCCM, ZAMEFA, Zanaco, Zambia Sugar and ZAFFICO. The LuSE All Share index (LASI) closed at 4,267.84 points, 0.11% up from its previous close of 4,264.12 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K58,829,076,839 including Shoprite Holdings and K24,584,436,064 excluding Shoprite Holdings.
Chart of the Day: