BUUMBA CHIMBULU writes
@SunZambian
THE Zambian Kwacha reversed its day’s gains to finish flat on Thursday as importer dollar demand offset the impact of corporate month end supply, Barclays Bank Zambia has said.
At close of trading around 15:30 hours, most commercial banks were quoting the Kwacha at K13.070/13.120 against the dollar.
The bank said this was same as its previous day’s close after touching an intraday high of K13.000/13.050 on the bid and offer respectively.
“The local unit is still likely to strengthen in the days to come on the back of healthy dollar inflows,” said the bank.
On the money market, liquidity in the local money markets increased in Thursday’s session to K739.71 million from K180.67 million due to Government salaries.
In the same vein, the volumes of funds traded on the interbank also pushed up to K316.00 million from K135.00 million.
“The markets were fairly active yesterday as market participants prepared to take part in today’s Government Bond Auction tender No. 04/2019/BA in which the government is looking to raise a total of K1.650.00 Billion,” said the bank.
Elsewhere, the South Africa’s Rand was flat on Thursday, as a boost from lower-than-expected local inflation was overshadowed by worries that further United States.
Federal Reserve easing might take longer than expected.
The rand was 0.07 percent lower at 15.2050, after firming compared to its overnight close in New York in early trading, while stocks also closed lower.
