Kwacha under pressure

Kwacha under pressure Armyworms threatening food security By BUSINESS REPORTER THE Kwacha on Thursday came under pressure against the dollar following a pickup in demand from importers.

The local unit began the day trading at K9.900 / K9.950 from the previous' day close of K9.875 / K9.925.

This is according to Cavmont Bank Zambia daily market report.By midmorning, the local unit had touched an intraday low of K10.000 / K10.050 on the interbank bid and offer respectively before making a retreat to K9.950 / K10.000, a level that the currency pair maintained until close of business.

“Elsewhere, the South African Rand appreciated to another intra-day high of $/ZAR13.2500 after Tuesday's announcement of fresh Chinese investment into the country,” said the bank.

On Wednesday, the bank indicated the Kwacha remained range bound against the dollar as there was not much activity during the trading session from most market participants.

The bank further indicated that the local unit opened at K9.850 / K9.900 but was later seen trading at K9.820 / K9.870 by mid-morning.

“Having crossed below the 200 day moving average more gains in the local are expected should supply outweigh demand unit coupled with the current liquidity conditions in the money markets,” said the ban

On the money market, commercial banks' aggregate current account increased by K231.89 million to K454.28million while the overnight borrowing and lending rate increased by 0.02 percent to 9.96 percent.

Total funds traded on Interbank were K198 million.