Kwacha maintains gain

By BUSINESS REPORTER THE Kwacha has continued its bullish performance against the dollar following increased supply from corporates and exporters.

The local unit managed to touch an intra-day of K9.250 / K9.300 on Wednesday from the day’s opening high levels of K9.330 / K9.380.

According to Cavmont Bank Zambia daily market report, the local currency by afternoon however was seen trading at K9.300 / K9.350 after a pickup in demand from importers.

“The local unit is expected to maintain its bullish trend in the short term as more corporate convert to settle quarterly and mid-month statutorys obligations,” said Cavmont Bank.

Meanwhile, Thursday saw the Kwacha lose its recent gains against the dollar following a strong surge in the greenbacks demand on interbank.

The local unit touched an intra-day low of K9.400 / K9.450 from the day's opening levels of K9.300 / K9.350.

Market activity was also noted from importers which also put pressure on the local unit.

By afternoon however, the currency pair was seen trading at K9.370 / K9.420.

The financial market however anticipates that the local pair was likely to make a comeback as demand from importers still remained largely weak.

On the money market, commercial banks' aggregate current account decreased by K117.63 million to K694.29 million while the overnight borrowing and lending rate was unchanged at 9.00 percent.

Total funds therefore traded on Interbank were K62.00 million.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Zambia has continued to conduct Open Market Operations (OMO) and was looking to reduce market liquidity by K1.8 billion.

The weighted accepted rates on one and seven days were 10.51 percent and 13.86 percent respectively.