Business

The 2021 Davos World Economic Forum (WEF) summit of business leaders and politicians has been called off for January due to the coronavirus pandemic, with organisers planning to reschedule the event to sometime early next summer.

South Africa's Nedbank said on Wednesday it hoped the worst impacts of the COVID19 pandemic were over after halfyear profits fell almost 70%, but its shares fell as traders tended towards a more pessimistic view.

At the interbank forex market, the domestic unit opened at 74.34, against Tuesday's closing of 74.33 and finally ended at 74.30 against the greenback, higher by 3 paise over its previous close.

Global shares were mostly lower Wednesday as investors looked ahead to a much anticipated speech by the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The value of Saudi Arabia's June oil exports was down 55% year on year, a drop of $8.7 billion, official data showed on Wednesday.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hit alltime closing highs on Tuesday, but a drop in Apple stock capped gains from positive developments in U.S.China trade and fresh progress in the medical battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

This means that money spent on such activities would be considered as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) spending under the Companies Act, 2013.

Malaysia's flagship budget airline AirAsia Group Bhd slipped to a loss in the second quarter, it said in a bourse filing on Tuesday, posting a fourth straight quarterly loss as revenue dropped.

Indian government spending will support the economy during the pandemic, but private consumption will be needed to drive any economic recovery once the coronavirus threat eases, the central bank said on Tuesday.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said headline inflation picked up strongly during the closing months of 2019-20 and the short-term outlook for food inflation has turned uncertain.

The Belarusian central bank will not introduce capital controls to prevent the depreciation of the Belarusian rouble as these would be counterproductive, central bank board member Dmitry Murin told Reuters on Tuesday.

Taranjit Singh Sandhu said as both India and the US combat a pandemic of unprecedented scale, the two countries have drawn upon the strength of their long-standing health-care ties to help them better understand the virus and find workable solutions.

The dollar slid but a gauge of global equity markets advanced on Monday, driven by coronavirus treatment hopes that bolstered risk sentiment and lifted the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to alltime peaks.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq scaled new heights on Monday, boosted by technology megacaps and U.S. approval for the emergency use of blood plasma in treating COVID19 patients.

Education publisher Pearson has tapped Andy Bird as its next chief executive, turning to a media veteran who helped build Walt Disney's consumer online business to complete its tricky digital transformation.

Gold prices fell on Monday as risk sentiment improved after the U.S. drug regulator authorised the use of blood plasma from recovered COVID19 patients as a treatment option, and the dollar held firm.