Story of the Day
October 16 marked World Food Day, commemorating the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 1945. Across the world, this day offers an opportunity for countries to assess their food security conditions and efforts to boost agricultural production. One of the measures that some often use to evaluate the food security condition of each country relative to the world is The Economist’s Global Food Security Index, which Corteva sponsors. This latest Index ranks South Africa at 59 out of 113 countries, an improvement from the 70th position in 2021. This places South Africa as the most food secure in the African continent, followed by Tunisia at 62nd. This improvement is commendable. When looking at the Index scoring’s technical position, it becomes clear why South Africa’s food security ranking has improved. South Africa’s scoring came in at 61,4, up from 57,8 in 2021. Read more
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International Business and Finance
On Thursday we will see a repair Budget that seeks to complete the job of defusing the timebomb set off under Britain’s finances by Liz Truss’ mini-Budget. The central message of this week’s Autumn Statement will be about “restoring stability” and “getting inflation down”. It will be the detail of the plan already promised and accounted for by the people who lend the government money, in the aftermath of this autumn’s fiscal fiasco. The challenge is to present a set of numbers that add up, and a set of policies that will actually pass through Parliament. Read more: BBC News
Tesla and CEO Elon Musk will spend this week in court to defend the massive compensation package that helped make him the world’s richest man. The week-long trial in Delaware Court of Chancery will examine the 2018 compensation plan that the automaker’s board of directors created for Musk. The automaker said at the time it could be worth nearly $56 billion, making it the largest compensation package for anyone on Earth from a publicly traded company, and the net value today is $50.9 billion. Read more: CNN
World leaders are kicking off a meeting Tuesday on the holiday island of Bali, Indonesia as the global economy grapples with a looming recession, central banks’ jumbo rate hikes and historically high inflation. The annual meeting of leaders from the world’s major economies, known as the Group of 20 nations, is also taking place as Russia’s war in Ukraine drags on and relations between Washington and Beijing remain tense. The gathering of officials that represent more than 80% of global GDP and 75% of exports worldwide marks the 17th meeting since the the platform kicked off after the Asian financial crisis in 1999 as a meeting for finance ministry officials and central bank leaders. Read more: CNBC
Stock futures traded lower early Monday morning after the S&P 500 posted its biggest weekly gain in almost five months on the back of easing inflation data. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 84 points, or 0.25%. S&P 500 futures declined 0.32% and Nasdaq 100 futures traded 0.55% lower. The S&P 500 rallied 5.9% last week for its best week since June. Investors cheered a lighter-than-expected inflation reading, betting that the Federal Reserve would soon slow its aggressive tightening campaign. Read more: CNBC
Capital Markets Report
In 113 trades recorded yesterday, 71,004 shares were transacted resulting in a turnover of K260,668.13. A share price loss of K0.01 was recorderd in Zambeef. Trading activity was also recorded in Copperbelt Energy Corporation, Chilanga Cement, PUMA, Standard Chartered Bank Limited, Zanaco and Zambia Sugar as well as CEC Africa on the quoted tier. The LuSE All Share Index (LASI) closed at 7,218.79 points, 0.01% down from its previous close of 7,219.48 points. The market closed on a capitalization of K72,353,759,849.67 including Shoprite Holdings and K37,571,074,409.67 excluding Shoprite Holdings.