Story of the Day:
Under the directives of Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai today launched the Vaccine Logistics Alliance to speed up distribution of COVID-19 vaccines around the world through the emirate. Read more
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Spurred by strong asset growth, interest and non interest income, Zambia’s largest bank by assets size Stanbic Banks FY20 earnings surged 2.2% to K459.3million as measured by after tax profits. Read more: The Business Telegraph
Lusaka South Multi Facility Economic Zone (LS-MFEZ) Limited is targeting to attract investments of over US$150 million this year. Eleven companies are at various levels of construction with a pledged investment of US$150 million and will create an additional 1,000 jobs by the end of 2021. Read more: Zambia Daily Mail
Zambia’s copper export earnings in December increased by 4.3 percent to K12.2 billion from K11.7 billion the previous month due to improved commodity prices on the international market. Read more: Zambia Daily Mail
Soya beans production is this year projected to increase further as the crop use as a Food crop is also on the raise. Zambia is projected to recorded a notable 6% growth in Soya production between the 2018/2019 to 2019/2020 farming season. Read more: Zambian Business Times
International Business and Finance
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will step down from his role as chief executive later this year and transition to the role of executive chair, the company said Tuesday. He will be replaced by Andy Jassy. Read more: CNN
London-listed Airtel Africa Plc. has revealed plans to sell off a minority stake in its mobile money service to raise funds. The sale would reduce Airtel’s ownership of its mobile network subsidiary despite its mobile money revenue in 2020 rising by 34% y-o-y to 110 million, and the customer base rising by 29% y-o-y. Read more: Business Insider
Google parent Alphabet saw record revenues for the second straight quarter despite the pandemic as advertisers unleashed spending during the holidays. Google’s advertising business, including YouTube, accounted for 81% of Alphabet’s $56.9bn in fourth-quarter sales, up 23% compared with a year ago.
Read more: BBC News
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has posted strong results for the last quarter of 2020. The company founded by Jack Ma saw revenues up 37% against the same quarter of 2019 to 221 billion yuan ($34.2bn). Read more: BBC News
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In 12 trades recorded yesterday, 21,898 shares were transacted yielding a market turnover of K35,594. Trading activity was recorded in AEL Zambia, Airtel, Copperbelt Energy Corporation, Lafarge, PUMA and Zanaco. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) maintained its close at 3,904.59 points, as there were no share price movements. The market closed on a capitalization of K57,319,772,494 including Shoprite Holdings and K23,086,001,308 excluding Shoprite Holdings.
Chart of the Day: