Story of the Day:
Food processing and agri-distribution company, Zambeef Plc, has announced the appointment of Mwansa Mutimushi as its Group Head of Legal and Company Secretary. Read more
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The Zambian kwacha’s 42-day record losing streak against the dollar is set to continue until the government deals with its $12 billion of external debt, despite official attempts to support the beleaguered currency, according to StoneX Group Inc. Read more: Bloomberg
Zanaco continues to build momentum as it strides to assume its rightful place in the banking ecosystem from both an asset size and profitability perspective. Full year 2020 financials reflect income leadership across almost all lines and a 48.2% rally in after tax earnings (PAT) to K343.3million supported by aggressive growth and fruits of management strategy over the years. Read more: The Business Telegraph
Mines Minister Richard Musukwa has called on mining companies to support local businesses. Mr. Musukwa says mining firms should engage local people, contractors and suppliers to be part of their economic equation. Read more: ZNBC
Zambia’s Sunflower production increased by a staggering 47% in the 2019/2020 farming season compared to the 2018/2019 farming season. Despite this aggressive increase, the local production still did not meet the national demand. Read more: Zambian Business Times
International Business and Finance
Sony posted third-quarter operating profits of $3.42 billion Wednesday, double analysts’ estimates. Sony’s operating profit for the October-to-December quarter jumped 20% to 359.2 billion yen, or $3.42 billion, from a year ago, double the 179 billion yen, or $1.70 billion. The company has now lifted its expected operating profit in the 12 months through March by roughly a third to 940 billion yen, or $8.95 billion. Read more: Business Insider
Deutsche Bank on Thursday beat earnings expectations for 2020 as it emerges from the coronavirus crisis, led by a strong performance in its investment banking division. Germany’s largest lender posted a full-year net profit of 113 million euros ($135.7 million). Analysts had expected a loss of 201 million euros. Deutsche reported a 5.7 billion euro loss for 2019 as it underwent major restructuring. Read more: CNBC
One measure in the Treasury market is signaling a booming economy, fiscal spending and inflation on the horizon.
The closely-watched yield curve between 2-year and 10-year note yields are at the steepest they’ve been since May 2017. Read more: CNBC
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd on Thursday set in motion its $5 billion U.S. dollar bond deal by announcing the initial price guidance in a marketing term sheet reviewed by Reuters. Alibaba flagged a price range of 130 basis points over U.S. 10-year Treasuries for the 10-year tranche and 140 basis points over U.S. 20-year Treasuries for the 20-year tranche. Read more: Reuters
Capital Markets Report Sponsored By ZCCM-IH:
In 15 trades recorded yesterday, 17,144 shares were transacted yielding a market turnover of K22,901. Trading activity was recorded in Airtel, Copperbelt Energy Corporation, Standard Chartered Zambia, ZCCM, Zanaco and Zambia Sugar. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) maintained its close at 3,904.59 points, as there were no share price movements. The market closed on a capitalization of K57,319,772,494 including Shoprite Holdings and K23,086,001,308 excluding Shoprite Holdings.
Chart of the Day: