Story of the Day:
Whilst many challenges exist within Zambia’s power sector, including the well-documented shortages, outages and off-taker issues, recent changes may usher in a new era. Although Zambia’s power sector is liberalised, with private sector participants playing an important role in generating power, ZESCO Limited (ZESCO), a vertically integrated electricity utility, has historically dominated the Zambian market in generation, transmission, distribution and supply. Is this about to change? Read more
Local Business and Finance Sponsored By Liquid Telecom
Credit rating agency Standards and Poor’s has lowered Africa’s second largest copper producer’s credit assessment to Selective Default – SD from ‘CCC-‘. This is S&Ps third rating adjustment of the copper producer this year and the second in the second half of the year. Read more: The Business Telegraph
Credit Default Spreads – CDS on Zambia’s dollar bonds widened significantly as default risks loom. On average credit spreads on Zambia’s bonds maturing 2022 are 5,601.23 basis points while the 2024s are 3,826.87bps and bonds maturing 2027 are spread at 2,992.23bps above benchmark similar tenor US denominated assets. Zambia’s dollar bonds are the worst performers of all emerging and frontier markets. Read more: The Business Telegraph
Diversified miner Anglo American has been sued in South Africa by a group of Zambian women and children alleging the company caused widespread lead poisoning from a mine it owned until 1974 in the northern city of Kabwe. Read more: Mining
The government has urged communities in Eastern Province to form cooperatives and apply for funds from the Zambia Integrated Forest Landscape Project (ZIFLP) grants in order to empower themselves and stimulate development in their areas. Read more: Lusaka Times
As traditional banks continue to shut down their expensive branch network, the more nimble telecoms and mobile money players like Airtel are even expanding and opening up more branches or shops as they like to call them. Read more: Zambian Business Times
Mines and Mineral Development Minister Richard Musukwa says there is need to invest in alternative economic sectors such as agriculture to avoid copper price shocks on the economy. And Musukwa says Zambia’s low copper production has been as a result of mining companies’ large-scale construction projects, which had slowed down production. Read more: News Diggers
International Business and Finance
PayPal is launching its own cryptocurrency service, allowing people to buy, hold and sell digital currency on its site and applications. The online payments company declared adding crypto was a significant milestone on the path to mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. Bitcoin investors agreed: Prices rose 5% on the news Wednesday. Read more: CNN
Asia Pacific is set to recover from its worst recession in living memory, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says.
Growth forecasts for the region have been downgraded again, this time from -1.6% to -2.2% for this year. However, the glimmer of hope is for a bounceback of almost 7% next year, according to the IMF. Read more: BBC News
Tesla has recorded a fifth quarter in a row of profit, as sales of its electric cars accelerated to a new record despite the pandemic. The firm said it made $8.7billion in revenue in the three months to September, as deliveries rose 54%. Read more: BBC News
One Standard Chartered Bank analyst warns that the greenback is vulnerable to a “significant depreciation” as sovereign fundamentals appear to be “pointing south.” “You have the twin deficits in the U.S. getting worse, you have the trade balance at the worst in 15 years,” Eric Robertsen, global head of research at Standard Chartered Bank, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Wednesday. Read more: CNBC
Capital Markets Report Sponsored By ZCCM-IH
Yesterday, a total of 5,773 shares were transacted in 14 trades, yielding a market turnover of K5,668. Trading activity was recorded in Copperbelt Energy Corporation Zambia, Zanaco, Lafarge and AEL Zambia. The Index (LASI) closed at 3,806.88 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K55,874,137,545 including Shoprite Holdings and K21,634,931,565 excluding Shoprite Holdings.
Chart of the Day: