Foreign Exchange And Money Market Rates

The Kwacha was largely unchanged against the U.S dollar on Friday as it opened at K5180/5220 per dollar, after closing within the same range on Thursday. The morning session saw some moderate activity especially from corporate front while most interbank players were seen trading the currency pair on the sidelines. As a result, the saw the Kwacha depreciate by K10 and it was later seen being quoted at K5190/5230 per dollar.

The Kwacha is likely to remain firm in the short term should the dollar supply remain adequate. However, we also expect global events especially in the Eurozone to continue affecting the performance of the local unit in the short to medium term which could send it either way. The Kwacha closed the day at interbank levels of K5195/5215 per U.S dollar.

Liquidity declined further in the money market as the Commercial banks’ aggregate current account balance decreased further by K125 billion from Thursday’s closing balance and stood at K245.40 billion. As a result of the reduced liquidity, the cost of funds for Interbank borrowing and lending was up again by 0.46% and stood at 5.31%. Funds traded on interbank were K252.60 billion.

Crude Oil prices were trading at $103.03 per barrel as at 16.00hrs local time up by $1.29 from the previous day’s price while Copper prices for immediate delivery on the London Metal Exchange (LME) were trading at $8369.75 per metric tonne on Friday.

SINGAPORE, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Copper rose more than 1 percent on Friday, ending a five-day losing streak, as hopes that debt-laden Greece would secure a second bailout next week revived appetite for risk assets. But an unclear outlook for Copper demand, particularly from top consumer China, kept the industrial metal's gains in check, with copper still headed for a second straight week of losses. Three-month Copper on the London Metal Exchange climbed 1.2 percent to $8,398.25 a tonne by 0727 GMT, after touching a three-week trough on Thursday. The metal is off around 1 percent so far this week. The most-traded May Copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed up 0.9 percent at 59,750 Yuan a tonne. Optimism is growing that Greece has finally done enough to secure a second bailout after it set out extra budget savings, boosting commodities and equities in Asia. Prices were also supported by more evidence of sustained recovery momentum in the U.S. economy. U.S. data on Thursday showed jobless claims falling to a near four-year low, solid growth in factory activity in the Mid-Atlantic area and a faster-than-expected rise in housing starts.

This information is prepared for indicative purposes only. For firm contracts please contact  Linda Mwenya, Mudenda Syamujaye, Finzi Mwezani or Peter Mwepu.
Tel: 360098  for Linda, 360096 for Finzi or 360097 for Peter,
Or email:
linda.mwenya@cavmont.com.zm
mudenda.syamujaye@cavmont.com.zm
Finzi.mwezani@cavmont.com.zm
Peter.mwepu@cavmont.com.zm

Cavmont Bank Ltd accepts no liability whatsoever for any direct or consequential loss arising from the use of or reliance upon any of the information and opinions contained herein.