Story of the Day:
At its Q2 MPC meeting, the Bank of Zambia (BoZ), moved to further ease monetary policy rate 125 bps to a record low of 8% coming from a 225-bps policy rate chop at its Q1 meeting. Never in the history of the benchmark interest rate framework which started in 2012 has BoZ undertaken such a huge pace of monetary policy easing in a single half of the year. Read more
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International Business Magazine has named Absa Bank Zambia PLC as the best retail bank in Zambia. Citing its commitment to service delivery, digital product offerings and competitiveness in the Zambian market, IBM rated Absa as the best bank in that space. Absa has in the COVID era unleashed state of the art digital solutions such as the NovoFX App a few months after it show cased contactless vertical card the first of its kind in the Zambian space. Read more: The Business Telegraph
Lubambe Copper Mine has discovered a new ore body, containing 235 metric tonnes of copper and cobalt, which is expected to extend the Chililabombwe based mine’s lifespan to 30 years. Company CEO, Nick Bowen says the new ore deposits will need an injection of US$10billion, before it can be exploited. Read more: ZNBC
Government says the national carrier, Zambia Airways, will soon be issued with the Air Operating Certificate (AOC) by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Transport and Communications Minister Hon Mutotwe Kafwaya says most of the challenging steps in relaunching the national carrier have already being dealt with. Read more: Lusaka Times
Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) says it has noted with regret that some people on social media are misleading innocent citizens that ZRA has launched a tax for using WhatsApp. What ZRA has launched is an innovative method of paying for all domestic taxes through a social media platform called WhatsApp. Read more: Zambia Reports
Saudi Arabia is considering opening a bank in the country to facilitate investment inflows in sectors like agriculture and mining, the Kingdom’s Ambassador to Zambia, Osamah Krenshi, has said. Mr Krenshi said this when Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) board chairperson Fisho Mwale paid a courtesy call on the envoy. Read more: Zambia Daily Mail
International Business and Finance
Tech giant Apple has become the first US company to be valued at $2 trillion on the stock market. It reached the milestone just two years after becoming the world’s first trillion-dollar company in 2018. Its share price hit $467.77 in mid-morning trading in the US on Wednesday to push it over the $2 trillion mark. Read more: BBC News
Airbnb is moving ahead with plans to go public just months after the pandemic upended the travel industry and forced the startup to lay off a quarter of its workforce. On Wednesday, Airbnb announced it had submitted confidential paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering. Read more: CNN
Federal Open Market Committee members expressed concern at their latest meeting over the future of the United States economy, saying that the coronavirus likely would continue to stunt growth and potentially pose dangers to the financial system. Read more: CNBC
OPEC and its allies pressed oil nations pumping above output targets to cut more in August-September amid fears oil demand recovery was slow while saying it could reach pre-pandemic levels by the year-end. Read more: Reuters
The cost for U.S. and European companies to move manufacturing out of China could reach $1 trillion over five years, according to new research from Bank of America. Read more: Market Watch
Standard Bank Group said that net profit for the first half fell sharply as credit-impairment charges soared due to the coronavirus pandemic, and warned that it will continue to face challenges in the second half. Net profit for the first six months of the year was 3.77 billion rand ($218.3 million) compared with ZAR13.20 billion for the year-earlier period, the South African bank said. Read more: Market Watch
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In 8 trades recorded yesterday, 555,738 shares were transacted yielding a market turnover of K2,610,486. Trading activity was recorded in Lafarge and Zambia Breweries. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) maintained its close at 3,842.39 points, as there were no share price movements . The market closed on a capitalization of K55,545,036,766 including Shoprite Holdings and K21,305,830,786 excluding Shoprite Holdings.
Chart of the Day: