MARKET activity was relatively sluggish with the Kwacha holding firm for a third straight day against the dollar, Barclays Bank Zambia has said.

In its daily market update, the bank indicated that the local currency closed the market at K11.88/93.

Barclays explained that the local unit traded flat in both the morning and afternoon sessions and was likely to remain stable with a bias to gain in the near term.

“We saw a marginal increase in market activity on Wednesday with the interbank traded volumes closing at K405 million from K391 million in the previous trading session.”

Meanwhile, Barclays indicated that market liquidity fell by K111 million to close at K440 million on the back of banks covering their statutory reserve obligations.

“The drop in liquidity coupled with the rise in market activity put pressure on the average overnight interbank lending rate to see it rise by 2bps to a 2019 high of 9.92 percent,” Barclays said.

And Cavmont bank Zambia said the commercial banks’ aggregate current account decreased by K110.06 million to K440.94 million while the overnight borrowing and lending rate increased by 0.01 percent to 9.92 percent.

Total funds traded on Interbank was K405 million.