Story of the Day:
Two weeks into February 2021 bond trading on the LuSE, we see the equities’ market slightly pick up as it records a 9% to 91% on the bond market. Which is better than last weeks performance as it was completely dominated. Even with the bond market having little trading activity during the week it still outperformed the equities market. In comparison to week two of 2020 which recorded a 12% to 88%. Read more
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An aggregation of FY20 banking industry prudential financials reveals that COVID19 related spend and widening sovereign induced provisions shriveled full year industry earnings by 14% to K1.49billion. Read more: The Business Telegraph
Lubinda Haabazoka, president of the Economic Association of Zambia (EAZ), said China has made it possible for developing countries to produce for themselves because the Asian nation has been able to produce cheap production machinery. “Our engineers should be busy copying such machinery in Zambia,” he said in a write-up on the performance of the country’s economy. Read more: Xinhua
An investment firm says there is need to establish a data system which will have information about small and medium scale entrepreneurs (SMEs) operating in Zambia and Africa in a quest to attract more investors. Read more: Zambia Daily Mail
Zambia needs the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme to give an assurance to lenders that the country will ensure fiscal consolidation, Zanaco has observed. Read more: Zambia Daily Mail
International Business and Finance
China is now the EU’s biggest trading partner, overtaking the US in 2020. China bucked a wider trend, as trade with most of Europe’s major partners dipped due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Trade between China and the EU was worth $709bn last year, compared with $671bn worth of imports and exports from the US. Read more: BBC News
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Kenyan government have reached an agreement for an additional $2.4 billion financing to help stabilise the operations of an economy battered by mounting debts and the devastating Covid-19 pandemic. Read more: Ghana Web
Ratings agency S&P Global Ratings said Tuesday that India is on track to recover from a pandemic-led economic contraction by next year. South Asia’s largest economy could grow 10% in fiscal 2022, the ratings agency predicted in a report. India’s fiscal year begins on April 1 and ends on March 31 in the following year. Read more: CNBC
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos reclaimed his title as the world’s richest person after he leapfrogged Tesla CEO Elon Musk, according to real-time data from Forbes. Musk saw his net worth slide by $3.9 billion on Tuesday as Tesla shares closed at $796.22, down more than 2.4%. Read more: CNBC
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In 31 trades recorded yesterday, 100,833 shares were transacted yielding a market turnover of K122,020. Share price gains of of K0.06 were recorded in Copperbelt Energy Corporation and of K0.01 in Zambeef. Trading activity was also recorded in Standard Chartered Zambia and Zanaco. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) closed at 3,971.18 points, 0.58% up from its previous close of 3,948.15 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K57,610,286,783 including Shoprite Holdings and K23,376,515,598 excluding Shoprite Holdings.
Chart of the Day:
