Story of the Day:
The African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA) is scheduled to enter its first transaction on the 1st January 2021 as agreed in July this year. The trade pact allowing all 54 African Union member countries to remove all trade barriers is scheduled to be the largest trade deal since the establishment of the WTO in 1994. Read more
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The Consumer Unit Trust Society (CUTS) says the Covid-19 pandemic has negatively affected the economic output of the country and resulted in reduced resource mobilisation, high inflation and depreciation of the Kwacha. Read more: ZNBC
Agriculture Minister Michael Katambo has called on farmers in Eastern Province to speed up the payments of their contributions under the Farmer Input Support Programme -FISP. Read more: ZNBC
First Quantum Minerals says it has maintained jobs and production at its operations in Zambia, despite sector-wide moves to reduce workforce and scale-down production in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more: Zambia Reports
A consortium of Civil Societies Organisations (CSOs) have predicted negative ripple effects to Zambia’s economy following the dismissal of Bank of Zambia (BoZ) governor Dr Denny Kalyaya. Read more: News Diggers
International Business and Finance
The UK was the hardest hit by Covid-19 among major economies from April to June, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has said. Its 20.4% contraction was well above the 9.8% drop for the 37 OECD nations as a whole, the think tank said. Read more: BBC News
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, is expected to discuss the Fed’s policy framework and how it will alter its posture on inflation. The Fed is expected have an “average inflation” target, and Fed watchers said officials may provide a band for tolerable inflation levels above and below its current target of 2%. Read more: CNBC
Facebook on Wednesday acknowledged that Apple’s upcoming iOS 14 could lead to a more than 50% drop in its Audience Network advertising business. Read more: CNBC
Software that eats up mobile data and registers people for unwanted subscriptions has been found pre-installed on thousands of low-cost Chinese smartphones in Africa more than two years after it was first detected. Read more: CNN
The White House is considering whether it can take action to prevent thousands of job losses in the airline industry a month before the election if it cannot reach a deal with Congress on a broader package of additional pandemic relief. Read more: Market Watch
South Africa’s headline consumer inflation quickened to 3.2% year-on-year in July from 2.2% in June, data from Statistics South Africa showed on Wednesday. Read more: Reuters
Capital Markets Report Sponsored By ZCCM-IH
In 25 trades recorded yesterday, 356,516 shares were transacted yielding a market turnover of K548,440. A share price gain of K0.06 was recorded in Copperbelt Energy Corporation. Trading activity was also recorded in Lafarge, Zanaco and Zambia Sugar. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) closed at 3,842.39 points, 0.58% up from its previous close of 3,818.99 points. 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: