THE Kwacha has posted further losses to stay near four-year low due to dollar demand from corporate and retail sector importers, the Barclays daily report says.

The report says the local currency was likely to trade on the back foot as supply still remains scanty.

This is according to the Barclays daily report issued yesterday.

On Friday, commercial banks quoted the Kwacha at K12.63/12.68 to the dollar unmoved from Thursday’s close and closed 6.5 ngwee shy of its open at K12.70/12.75 on the bid and offer respectively.

“The local unit is likely to trade in a wide band with a bearish bias in the near term,” the report says.

Meanwhile, copper prices on Friday inched away from a one-month low touched in the previous session, buoyed as the U.S. dollar eased from a two-year high.

The report says three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange had edged up 0.1 percent to $6,369 a tonne by 0142 GMT, after marking its lowest since March 28 on Thursday on a strong US dollar and worries over the outlook for the global economy.