By BUUMBA CHIMBULU
OVER K600 million has been raised by the Bank of Zambia (BoZ) in the treasury bills auction.
The Central bank was only able to raise K660.67 million in Thursday’s Treasury bill sell against the K1.40 billion sought.
“Appetite declined to a 52 percent subscription (at face value, 48 percent at cost) in a sign the euphoria for short-term yield had died down post August 2021 events,” according to Access Bank Zambia.
On the money market, the bank indicated that market liquidity increased to K3.08 billion from K2.60 billion the previous day.
It stated that the market traded a total volume of K690 million, an increase from the K453.50 million traded the previous session.
“The overnight lending, in tandem, increased to 8.98 percent from 8.91 percent following intervention seen with the central bank purchasing funds,” the bank stated.
Meanwhile, the bank stated that the Kwacha continued on its losing streak during Thursday trading on the back of high importer demand under tight supply conditions.
Having opened with an interbank quote of 17.8028/17.8528, the USD/ZMW pair went on to close the session pegged at 17.8127/17.8624, up from Wednesday’s 17.7959/17.8459 close.
And Absa Bank Zambia indicated that the Zambian Kwacha was relatively stable against the greenback on Thursday with some inflows witnessed from exporters and the interbank market, although not enough to quench the current backlog of importer demand.
“At market open, commercial banks in Lusaka quoted the local unit at K17.800/K17.850 per dollar where it traded throughout the session until closure.
“In the absence of healthy dollar supply, we anticipate the Kwacha to trade on the back foot in the near term,” it stated.
On metals, Absa stated that “London copper eased on Friday, hit by Asian stock markets turning risk averse on concerns over Sino-U.S. ties after ride-hailing giant Didi announced delisting in New York and signs of rising inventories in top consumer China.
“Three-month copper on the LME was down 0.5 percent at US$9,460.5 a tonne, while the most-traded January copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange inched 0.1 percent higher to 69,140 yuan (US$10,847.36) a tonne,” Absa said.
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