By JAMES KUNDA –

LATEST market updates indicate that the Kwacha saw some marginal gains against the dollar in thin trading on Tuesday.
Interbank dollar supply in the mid-morning session saw the Kwacha touch a session high of K6.13/K6.15 from its K6.15/K6.17 opening levels.
This move was, however, short-lived as dollar demand by both corporates and interbank players weakened the Kwacha to K6.15/6.17 on the bid and offer respectively where the local unit eventually closed the trading day.
In the near term, the Kwacha should hold steady against the dollar within a range of K6.10 and K6.20 on the interbank with mismatches in demand and supply being the main driver.
Meanwhile, the money market experienced a decrease in liquidity levels, dropping to K413.76 million from K574.02 million.
The volume of traded funds increased to K524 million from the previous day’s K437.0 million and the weighted average overnight went up, closing the day 16.67 per cent from 16.25 per cent.
The overnight lending rate is anticipated to remain above the 16.5 per cent mark in the near term on account of the prevailing tight liquidity levels.
And copper slipped on Tuesday from a one-week high on uncertainty about growth in top metals consumer China and worries that upcoming trade data may be weak.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell 0.37 per cent to US$6,650 a tonne in official trading, after hitting a session high of $6,710, the strongest since April 2.
The metal gained 0.9 per cent on Monday.