Good morning. Here’s what you need to know
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Zambia Sugar Plc Reports Impressive Financial Performance for H1 2024
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ZNS launches Eagles Holding Group of Companies
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Dow falls more than 600 points, notching worst day of the year
In Local Business and Finance News
Zambia Sugar Plc has announced a remarkable financial performance for the six-month period ended February 29, 2024. According to the CEO Oswald Magwenzi, the performance has been achieved by keeping and maintaining the implementation of their strategy. He further indicated at the half year presentation held by the company that their product continues to be “safe and you never have to worry about it harming your family”. Some of the company’s Key performance metrics included: Cane supply up by 8 %, Sugar production up 14%, Sales growth up by 18%, Revenue up by 39% and Operating profit up 105%. Hezron Musonda, the company’s CFO who made his debut at the event indicated that the company’s operating profit surged by 105% to K1.34 billion, up from K656 million in the previous year. This significant increase was driven by improved domestic sales volume, despite significant cost pressure on key inputs and the depreciation of the Kwacha. Read more on Financial Insight
The Zambia National Service (ZNS) has announced that it has registered eight subsidiary companies with the aim of engaging in profitable business ventures that would contribute to Zambia’s GDP. ZNS Commander, Lieutenant General Maliti Solochi, says the service has professionals that have the capacity and dedication to play critical roles in private enterprise. Meanwhile, Defence Minister Ambrose Lufuma has urged the military to engage in productive and economic ventures to increase revenue generation. Speaking during the launch of Eagles Holding Limited Group of Companies and its subsidiaries; Eagles Alert Security and Eagles Plus Trading, Thursday, General Solochi said ZNS would participate in the realm of private enterprise to offer competitive products and services competitively. Read more: News Diggers
The Zambia Chamber of Mines (ZCM) has welcomed the results of the latest Fraser Institute Report, the annual survey of global mining investors, which has revealed a significant improvement in investors’ sentiment. Zambia has leaped from 12th to 3rd place in investment attractiveness among Africa’s mining countries. The country had dropped off the rankings from 2019 to 2021, re-entering at 58th in the world in 2022 and rising to 34th in the latest 2023 report. The 2023 report surveyed investors’ opinions of 86 mining jurisdictions around the world. The collated data was used to populate an Investment Attractiveness Index, as well as a Policy Perception Index. Although Zambia improved its ranking in both indices from previous years, it did less well in terms of policy perception, ranking 6th out of 12 for Africa’s mining jurisdictions. Read more: Lusaka Times
The Zambian Kwacha weakened further against the United States (US) dollar in Wednesday’s trading session. This was despite the efforts by the Bank of Zambia (BoZ) stepping in by offloading US$8.5 million onto the market on Tuesday to relief pressure on the local currency. During the trading session on Tuesday, the Zambian Kwacha lost more ground against the US dollar, prompting the Central bank to step in. The BoZ offloaded US$8.5 million onto the market in effort to relieve some pressure off the local currency and partially offset the steadily rising demand for the US dollar. This, however, did not seem to help much as the local currency the following day. Read more: Zambia Monitor
In International News
The Dow tumbled by more than 600 points Thursday, notching its worst day of 2024, as all three major indexes closed lower. The drop came even after AI-darling Nvidia delivered stellar quarterly earnings and announced a 10-for-1 stock split. Chipmaker Nvidia soared more than 9% as the wider market dropped lower, highlighting a lack of market breadth. (Nvidia is not one of the 30 stocks that comprise the Dow Jones Industrial Average.) Boeing weighed on markets on Thursday, dropping more than 7.5% after the beleaguered aircraft manufacturer said its cash flows were worse than expected this year. That caused concern amongst investors that its debt ratings could be classified as junk bonds. Read more: CNN
Microsoft Corp. and G42, the leading artificial intelligence firm in the United Arab Emirates, are collaborating to construct a $1 billion geothermal-powered data centre in Kenya. This project marks the first phase of a multiyear initiative aimed at boosting cloud-computing capacity in East Africa, according to Bloomberg. G42 will lead the first investment and oversee the construction of the facility in Olkaria, an area rich in geothermal resources. This is particularlyj advantageous in a continent often plagued by power outages and supports Microsoft’s climate goals. The first phase of the project will have a capacity of 100 megawatts and is expected to be operational in about two years. Read more: Business Insider
President Yoon Suk-yeol has announced a record $19bn support plan for South Korea’s crucial semiconductor industry. South Korea is home to the world’s top memory chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, and last year pledged to build the world’s largest chip centre using $456bn of private investment as it seeks an edge in the global industry. “We have created a comprehensive support programme for the semiconductor industry worth 26 trillion Korean won [$19.1bn], which encompasses financial, infrastructure, research and development, as well as support for small and medium-sized companies,” he said, according to a statement from his office. The package includes a $7bn investment announced earlier this month. Read more: Al Jazeera
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he doesn’t support President Biden’s recent announcement of a tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles. “Neither Tesla nor I asked for these tariffs,” Musk said in response to a question from CNBC’s Karen Tso during a question and answer session at the VivaTech conference here on Thursday. “In fact, I was surprised when they were announced.” The Biden administration last week said it was placing a 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicle imports to the U.S. in a bid to stop cheap Chinese EVs from flooding the U.S. market. The White House says Beijing’s subsidies are helping companies overproduce cheap clean energy products like solar panels and EVs that outpace domestic demand. Read more: CNBC
Finally, Capital Markets News
In 90 trades recorded yesterday, 18,941 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K285,162.30. The following share price changes were recorded yesterday: +K0.06 in Standard Chartered Bank Limited and +K0.01 in ZANACO. Trading activity was recorded in Airtel, CEC Zambia, Pamodzi, Real Estate Investments Zambia, ZCCM, Zambeef, Zambia Sugar and ZAFFICO. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) closed at 12,922.12 point, 0.20% higher than it’s previous day close at 12,896.60 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K100,509,818,814.46 including Shoprite Holdings and K65,727,133,374.46 excluding Shoprite Holdings.
A total of 7 Govt Bond trades with total face value of 35,475,430 and turnover 25,076,640 were processed yesterday.