Here is a list of market events to watch out for in Zambia this week beginning the 02 December. PMI RELEASE: Markit Economics will release Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) readings for African nations including Zambia on Wednesday 04 December. Zambia’s PMI readings for November is expected to slide deeper into contraction to between 46-47 from 48.3 in October on account of effects of power outages and liquidity bottlenecks. Zambia has been in the woods for 14 months now. Manufacturing firms continue to bear the brunt of power outages and a generally elevated energy cost environment both on electricity and fuel…
Author: The Editor
Stanbic Bank Zambia Head Office on Addis Ababa Drive in Lusaka the capital.
The Bank of Zambia in the Friday 29 November, fixed income security sale raised K393 million ($35.33 million) as proceeds in cash terms. On offer was K1.1 billion yet bids were inadequate to cover at K806 million given market liquidity position as measured by interbank current account balance. However 94% of the total bids were in the 2yr and 5yr tenors that were decently allocated. The 2yr point was successful at 29.5% while the 5yr yield edged higher by 50bps to 33%. “The bond sale could have raked more proceeds but for costly bids by chancers that were thrown out,”…
Bank of Zambia offices on Cairo road Lusaka.
Five year term debt in Africa’s copper hotspot will now reprice higher to 33% at minimum on new credit as the 5 year bond just printed 50 basis points higher than in the last primaries. In the Kwacha fixed income debt sale on 29 November, successful bids for 5yr govies were priced at 33% and remains the sweetest spot on the Kwacha term structure of interest rates. Funds seeking yield will earn great margins in the five year but the cost of credit for term debt just ebbed bearish as new term loans will now be above 33%. The Zambian…
A man holds Kwacha notes in Lusaka the capital.
Barely a week ago, the blue bank launched the country’s first ever digital one minute loan from the comfort of its clients phones or mobile devices, Zambia’s most profitable and largest bank by asset size, Stanbic is at it again unveiling an energy finance solution to the copper producers energy crisis dubbed yasha mailiti at the Alternative Energy expo last week. Yasha mailiti is a vernacular term meaning switch on your lights. Being a client centric financial institution, Stanbic is thinking about its customer base and how extended load management has impacted them given the currency power bottlenecks the country…
Gemfields subsidiary Kagem mining recorded an all time high in emerald price per carat of $85.26 in a coloured stone auction whose proceeds were $27.2 million the highest this year. The coloured stone sale attracted 48 companies in record bids of which 88% were absorbed in carat terms or 87% in lot terms. The November Singapore auction brings the total proceeds Gemfields Kagem emeralds and beryl to $635 million since July 2009. Adrian Banks, Gemfields’ Managing Director of Product and Sales, commented: “Kagem has realised $79 million of auction revenues in 2019, the second‐best calendar year performance since the auction…
Waning sentiment in Africa’s red metal producer, Zambia is eclipsing the autopsy effects of the central banks monetary policy sterilization measures. The Bank of Zambia of 14 and 20 November (a week apart) gave financial markets a fair dosage of monetary policy tightening after a thousand basis point hike in the emergency funding rate to commercial banks to 28% and 125 basis point upwards adjustment in the benchmark interest rate to 11.5% respectively. The copper currency hit and all time low of 14.85 in intraday trading after settling at 14.75 in bid price. Value added tax refunds haven’t made it…
CURRENCY: Pressure on the currency in Africa’s copper producer Zambia, is expected to detente as the recent sterilization measures transmit to the currency markets. Closing Friday 23 November at highs of 14.35 in bid, the copper currency pressure is forecast to ease as the effects of the 125 basis points benchmark interest rate hike to 11.5% and the 1,000 basis point hike on the overnight emergency funding rate to commercial banks to 28%, start to manifest. Zambia grapples with a sliding currency given rise in dollar demand to fund the energy sector at a time when its reserves have fallen…