Turnover increased to MWK 466m from MWK 1.5m registered last week. Active counters during the week were TNM, Standard Bank, NBS (MWK 12.50, -14.9%) and Illovo. TNM dominated trading with 235m shares changing hands representing 94% of total market turnover. The dip in NBS pushed MASI down by 37.9 points to close at 5939.41 representing -0.6% w/w and 10.6% YTD.
Nigerian government is ready to offer technical support to Malawi in her efforts to explore oil in Lake Malawi. The Nigerian president mentioned this during his two-day State visit. He was accompanied by a 143-member delegation that includes senior Nigeria government officials and business captains. President Joyce Banda and her Nigeria counterpart Goodluck Jonathan launched Malawi-Nigeria Business Forum which aims at forming economic partnership through bilateral agreements. Banda announced at the launch ceremony held in Lilongwe that the two governments had already signed two agreements on Technical Manpower Assistance Agreement and the Economic and Technical Partnership Agreement. The two presidents, however, did not divulge contents of the two agreements, but Banda mentioned that seven other agreements were expected to be signed at the end of the forum
Gross domestic product growth in 2012 will dip further from the initial forecast of 4.3% owing to a number of constraints taking root in the Malawi economy, analysts have predicted. Finance Minister, in the 2012/13 budget, put growth at 4.3%, a downward revision from the initial projection of 6.9%, largely affected by macroeconomic and structural challenges. Malawi’s economy is currently riddled with a number of problems. The 49% devaluation of the kwacha and its subsequent flotation on May 7 this year, have triggered a rise in the inflation rate.
In politics, a social commentator based at Chancellor College in Zomba has advised President Joyce Banda to trim her Cabinet and appoint a technocratic crisis management team. In a written response to a questionnaire, the commentator noted that currently Malawians are not happy with the state of affairs as evidenced by strikes, rising crime rate, the public anger and prevailing frustration; hence, a crisis Cabinet is needed to steer the country to economic recovery. He stated that it is surprising that although it was obvious that there was need to devalue the local currency, the country’s leadership did not put in place concrete mitigation mechanisms to ease the hardships people are facing now.
Source: African Alliance
