Story of the Day:
The first half of the year (H1) has come to an end so management teams across the banking industry are reviewing their strategies to determine how well they are performing against their annual budgets and whether they will meet their targets by year-end. Last week, the press released financial statements for the second quarter of 2020 (Q2 2020) and we review the top 5 banks as below. Read more
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Standard Charted Bank – Stanchart has announced the closure of two more branches effective 30 September, 2020. This is the second round of branch closures after the multinational bank had done a similar exercise in January 2020. Read more: Zambian Business Times
Government has spent over K2 billion towards dismantling of domestic arrears. Government has also spent K1 billion to deal with debt owed to pensioners through the public service pensions fund. Finance Minister Bwalya Ng’andu says he considers the issue of pensioners and retirees as a moral issue that needs to be addressed. Read more: ZNBC
The Zambian foreign exchange market has seen a series of changes this year as the central bank constantly revises its Interbank Foreign Exchange Markets – IFEM framework rules. Disease pandemic globally has exerted pressure on emerging and frontier market currencies that sold off this year as demand for riskier assets waned causing liquidity flight to safety in the dollar, precious metals such as gold and above all US treasuries. Read more: The Business Telegraph
Ministry of Finance has released K250 million towards the construction and rehabilitation of roads across the country. Housing and infrastructure development minister Vincent Mwale said out of this amount, K20 million will go towards the rehabilitation of the Ndola-Mufulira road whose works had stalled. Read more: Zambia Reports
The National Road Fund Agency (NRFA) has recorded a 20% drop in revenue collections from its toll gates following the outbreak of corona virus. NRFA Director Wallace Mumba says the agency has so far collected K777 million in toll fees from 35 tolling stations countrywide. Mr. Mumba says this is down from the targeted K952 million in revenue collections by end of July. Read more: Lusaka Times
The Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) has asked government to consider increasing the non-taxable income threshold to K4,300 from the current K3,300 to help citizens cope with the rising cost of living. Read more: News Diggers
International Business and Finance
President Donald Trump wants to offer tax credits to entice US firms to move factories out of China. He has also threatened to strip government contracts from firms that continue to outsource work to China. In a speech, Mr Trump vowed to create 10 million jobs in 10 months saying “we will end our reliance on China.” Read more: BBC News
Boeing Co said on Monday it would offer employees a voluntary layoff package with pay and benefits for the second time this year, as the planemaker battles a coronavirus-induced slowdown in global air travel. Read more: Reuters
Bitcoin jumped to its highest in over a year on Monday, adding to a 2020 rally that has seen it more than treble in price since March. The biggest cryptocurrency gained 4.4% to $12,424, its highest since July 2019. Bitcoin has soared over 70% this year, making it one of the strongest performing assets. Read more: Reuters
The United States has cut off Huawei’s access to vital, advanced computer chips, striking a deadly blow to the Chinese tech champion. The US Commerce Department on Monday announced fresh sanctions that restrict any foreign semiconductor company from selling chips developed or produced using US software or technology to Huawei, without first obtaining a license to do so. Read more: CNN
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In 15 trades recorded yesterday, 147,791 shares were transacted yielding a market turnover of K585,965. A share price loss of K0.05 was recorded in Lafarge. Trading activity was also recorded in Zambia Breweries and ZCCM. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) closed at 3,842.39 points, 0.06% down from its previous close of 3,844.69 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: