Kwacha continues gaining

THE kwacha has continued to gain value for the fourth straight session due to healthy dollar conversions from corporate, the Barclays Bank has said.

According to Barclays Bank daily report, the Kwacha traded at its opening levels of K12.50/12.55 for most of the day but closed at its high of K12.46/12.51 on the bid and o er respectively.

e report said the local unit was likely to trade steady in the short term.

“ e liquidity level was relatively unchanged in the money markets yesterday at K570.93 million from K590.60 million with the cost of borrowing funds on the interbank increasing to 10.31 percent from 10.30 percent.

According to the report, the local markets remained quiet with yields staying somewhat unchanged.

According to the report, US oil futures hit their highest in over a month on ursday as a potential hurricane threatened crude output in the Gulf of Mexico and as an incident involving a British tanker in the Middle East highlighted ongoing tensions there.

“Brent crude futures were down 5 cents, or 0.1 percent, at $66.96 a barrel, after ending Wednesday up 4.4 percent,” the report said.

Gold prices, the report said, slumped 1 percent on ursday, erasing gains posted earlier in the session after stronger-than-expected consumer in ation in the United States cast doubts whether the U.S. central bank will cut interest rates as aggressively as expected.

“Spot gold shed 1 percent to $1,404.40 per ounce, dropping nearly $15 after U.S. consumer prices demonstrated a pick-up in underlying in ation, increasing in June by the most in nearly 1-1/2 years,” the report says.

e report said Copper was supported by a weaker U.S. dollar on ursday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell raised expectations for an easing of monetary policy, although trade war tensions capped gains.

According to the report Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) ended 0.3 percent higher at $5,955 per tonne, after jumping 2 percent in the previous session.