Mariusz Lukasiewicz. Gold, Finance and Imperialism in South Africa, 1887–1902: A View from the Stock Exchange. Palgrave Macmillan, 2025. xxxi + 242 pp. Bibliography. Index. £109.99. Paperback. ISBN: 9783031519499.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of various determinants at the country level, the industry level, the firm level and the corporate governance (CG) level on the extent of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in the group of developing and developed nations.Design/methodology/approachThe data set comprises 310 companies listed on stock exchanges of developing and developed markets (Brazil – IBrX 100, 42 companies; Russia – Broad Market Index; 48 companies; India – Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 100, 50 companies; China – Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) 180, 27 companies; South Africa – The Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE)/Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) All Share index, 49 companies; the USA – New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) 100, 47 companies; and the UK – London Stock Exchange (LSE) 100, 47 companies). CSR disclosure is measured through CSR disclosure index. Five separate regression models are run to investigate the impact of the factors that affect the extent of CSR disclosure.FindingsThe findings reveal that CSR disclosure is influenced by factors both at micro and macro levels. Governance environment, globalization and income inequality are found to be significant determinants of CSR disclosure for developing countries. International listing significantly influences CSR disclosure in the developed countries. The results also exhibit that board with large proportion of independent directors, high presence of CSR committee and environmental sensitive industries are more likely to engage in CSR disclosure practices in developing as well as in developed nations.Research limitations/implicationsThis study implicates that varied factors – at country level, industry level, firm level and CG level – need assessment to know their impact differently in countries at different stages of economic development. However, longitudinal study covering longer period would lead to better generalization of results.Practical implicationsThe findings of this present study implicate that managers must evaluate country’s political, social and economic forces and not just rely on company-level indicators affecting disclosure. Policymakers in emerging nations must emphasize on improving country governance features to enhance CSR disclosure of companies. Developing countries must respect and conform to rules and regulations while going global. More endeavors should be made to raise awareness about the benefits of CSR disclosure on reducing income inequality among companies listed on stock exchanges of developing countries. Emerging nations should follow developed nations in assuming responsibility toward stakeholders in foreign markets. This study also recommends regulatory bodies in both developing and developed countries to frame stringent policies regarding CG for improving CSR disclosure by companies.Originality/valueThis study overcomes the limitations of prior literature by considering both country- and company-specific determinants in prominent group of developing (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and developed (the USA and the UK) countries.

The relationship between stock prices and exchange rates has continued to generate interest from both the academia and financial industry players for many years. This study conducts an empirical investigation into the relationship between stock prices and exchange rates for the two largest economies in Sub-Saharan Africa – South Africa and Nigeria. Our methodology accounts for structural breaks in the data and the long-run relationship between stock and foreign exchange markets. The results of multivariate causality tests with structural breaks showed that causality runs from exchange rates to domestic stock prices in Nigeria (flow channel) while in South Africa, no causality exists between domestic stock prices and exchange rates. The results also reveal that there is causality from the London stock market to both countries’ stock markets, thus showing that international stock markets are driving both the Nigerian and South African stock markets.

The relationship between sports sponsorships and corporate financial returns in South Africa

In the past several years, financial statements fraud has cost market participants huge sum of loss and it has eroded market participants confidence in the audit financial report of organisations. This study therefore, examined the determinants of financial statement fraud in Nigeria and South Africa. The study specifically focus on firm size, leverage, board independence, institutional ownership, firm profitability and capital structure. The population of the study comprised 510 quoted non-financial companies in the Nigeria Stock Exchange and Johannesburg Stock Exchange for the periods 2012 to 2018. A sample size of 70 was selected using random sampling techniques. The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics and robust least square regression analysis. It was observed from the descriptive statistics that there is presence of financial statement fraud reporting among the quoted non-financial companies in Nigeria and South Africa. The results revealed that firm size was statistically significant in Nigeria and South Africa, leverage was statistically insignificant in Nigeria and South Africa, board independence was statistically significant in Nigeria but insignificant in South Africa, institutional ownership was statistically significant in Nigeria and insignificant in South Africa, firm profitability was statistically significant in South Africa but insignificant in Nigeria while capital structure was statistically insignificant in Nigeria and South Africa. The study recommended that the results have direct implications for further improvement of firm size, board independence, institutional investors and capital structure.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the nature of returns and volatility spillovers between exchange rates and stock price in the IBSA nations (India, Brazil, South Africa).Design/methodology/approachThe study uses VAR framework and the recently proposed Spillover measure of Diebold and Yilmaz to examine the returns and volatility spillover between exchange rates and stock prices of IBSA nations. In addition, multivariate GARCH with time varying variance‐covariance BEKK model is used as a benchmark against the spillover methodology proposed by Diebold and Yilmaz.FindingsThe results of multivariate GARCH model suggests the integration between stock and foreign exchange markets and indicates the existence of bi‐directional volatility spillover between stock and foreign exchange markets in the IBSA countries. Spillover results using the Diebold Yilmaz model suggest the bi‐directional contribution between stock and foreign exchange market, in terms of both returns and volatility spillovers. Overall, results confirm the presence of returns and volatility spillovers within the IBSA nations and, in particular, the stock markets play a relatively more important role than foreign exchange markets in the first and second moment interactions and spillovers.Practical implicationsThe market participants may consider the relationship between the exchange rate and stock index to predict the future movement of each other effectively. Multinational companies interested in exchange rate forecasting may consider the stock market as an important attribute. There is an interesting implication for portfolio managers too because of the spillover stock and foreign exchange markets. This knowledge would help to create a fund which performs well. Moreover, the paper can help regulators and policy makers in IBSA nations to understand the structure of the market in a better way and then design their policies.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the literature by extending the existing studies on the spillover between stock price and exchange rate by investigating the issue for three emerging economies, India, Brazil and South Africa. Unlike most studies in the literature which focus on multivariate GARCH model, this is the first study which explores the issue of returns and volatility spillover between the stock prices and the exchange rates using spillover measure of Diebold and Yilmaz and much longer and recent daily data. Moreover, multivariate GARCH with time varying variance‐covariance BEKK model is used as a benchmark against the spillover methodology proposed by Diebold and Yilmaz.

In this study, we used a wavelet analysis method to analyze how stock price index is correlated with exchange rate in South African stock market andinterest rate was choosen as the control variable. As indicated by the empirical results, first, stock index is significantly correlated with exchange rate in the stock market of South Africa, no matter in the short term (1-4 years) or the long term (4-8 years). There is a significant correlation period, with correlation coefficient greater than 0.8. Second, for the short-term (1-4 years) relationship, after adding control variables, South Africa’s short-term negative correlation will be led by the stock exchange rate. That is, in condition of the negativity of both stock market and exchange rate, the stock market leads. And interest rate greatly affects the short-term (1-4 years) exchange rate and the stock price index in South Africa. And in the short term, the linkage between those two variables is not subject to the influence of 2008 financial crisis. Third, for the long-term (4-8 years) relationship, when we add control variables, regardless of its term, there is a negative correlation between stock market index and exchange rate in South African stock market, and stock market affects exchange rate. The long-term (4-8 years) correlation of stock price index and exchange rate in South African stock market was affected by the 2008 financial crisis. South African market is indeed the goal for investors to participating enthusiastically now. The above conclusions can serve as a lesson for hedging in corporate exchange rate, stock market, and also reference for global investors and all sorts of investor asset allocation.

Economic Fundamentals and Changes in Stock Prices: A Comparative Analysis of Nigerian and South African Stock Exchange

Purpose of this research is to statistically measure the effects of financial risk and business risk on Firm values of logistics companies from Turkey, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS-T countries), that are listed on the Stock Exchange. This study was conducted in the light of previous research from the years between 2011 and 2014. For this reason a sample was created using by extracting data from the balance sheets and income statements of altogether 30 different companies and a multiple regression analysis was performed on them. At the end of the research, when a comparison was made with logistics companies in Turkey to the companies from the other BRICS-T countries that are in the logistics industry, similarities were found with companies from China and India. While business risk made an impact on Firm values in countries like Turkey, China and India, it was found that financial risk affected Firm value in Russia, Brazil and South Africa. http://dx.doi.org/10.17130/ijmeb.2016icafr22460

The economic liberalization took place in the year 1991, opened up wide range of opportunities to the industries, service providers as well as to the investors. Investors overcome the geographical boundaries to diversify their portfolio to foreign markets. So, it is highly important to understand the inter-linkages among the nations. The present study chosen the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) consortium’s stock market indices to analyze the connectedness among them, by taking the daily closing price levels, from 1st of Feb 2015 to 31st of March 2021, applied descriptive statistics, Unit root test, Granger Causality Test and Johansen Co-integration tests are performed. The results unveil that, the data sample is stationary; there exists the inter-linkages among the BRICS nations stock markets. India’s stock market has major impacts on Brazil, China, South Africa as well as Russia, where as India will not receive major impacts from China, Russia and South Africa. Study concludes that diversifying the portfolio to foreign countries stock markets benefit the investors with increased returns and reduced risk. The study results helps the investors to diversify their portfolios into foreign stock exchanges to get stabilized returns understanding the relationship among emerging countries stock exchanges.

Over the past four decades there has been a growing interest in the emerging field of Islamic finance and investment (IFI) in South Africa and more generally in other parts of the Western world. One of the distinguishing features of IFI is that investment in any form of business enterprise has to meet certain criteria that fulfil the requirements of Islamic Law (Shariah). In South Africa there has accordingly been a concerted effort to embrace the principles of IFI in the market. The aim of this study is to identify whether there has been any difference in the financial performance of shares on the stock exchange meeting the Islamic investing criteria compared to those that do not, within an emerging market context. The proxy for the Islamic market is the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) South Africa Islamic Index. The returns on this index are compared to three proxies for the conventional market from 1996 to 2007 using single and multiple regression models: (1) the All Share Index on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in a single-factor regression; (2) the Resources Index and Financial-Industrial Index in a two-factor model; (3) and a four-factor model developed by Carhart (1997) that accounts for size, growth and momentum in the market in addition to the All Share Index. Looking at all three measures, no significant differences were identified in the performance of the Islamic index compared to that of the conventional market.

This research discusses the key events that led to the establishment of the current regulations pertaining to the functioning of audit committees in six major capital markets of the world, namely, the U.S., U.K. Australia, India, South Africa, and Argentina, and also presents the findings based on a comparison of these regulations. Specifically, the authors review the changes that happened either proactively or sometimes as a reaction to certain events in each of these securities markets, leading to the current audit committee regulations. Also, the relevant local laws and requirements of the regulatory bodies along with the listing rules of the stock exchanges in the above six nations are examined to study how the requirements are both similar as well as different across the six continents. Given the increase in the number of multinational corporations selling shares in different capital markets where such entities have to conform to the regulations of each such market, a study of the audit committee regulations is expected to give some insight into how much rigor the different capital markets of the world have with respect to their expectations of the composition of the audit committee, what the committee’s role should be, how it should conduct its business, and to whom it should report. The study shows that each of these six nations has had its share of corporate scandals and/or abuses of power by senior business executives that first caused losses for investors, and eventually led to the current regulations. In some of these markets, audit committee regulations advanced from being recommendatory and “principles-based” to being mandatory mainly because of the pressure from external stakeholders. The newer regulations in each securities market generally, though not always, represented improvement over the previous versions. The study also shows that today the audit committees of companies listed on the different stock exchanges being examined in this study are subject to similar or sometimes identical requirements in some respects. At the same time, there are other requirements where the authors see minor as well as noticeable differences. All in all, NYSE emerges as the stock exchange with the most rigorous expectations from the audit committee on various matters and especially with respect to the monitoring of the independent auditor. While the audit committee regulations in the developed world of the U.S., U.K., and Australia have set good examples of governance practices before the rest of the world, the securities markets in the emerging economies of India, South Africa, and Argentina are not far behind. There are areas where the regulations in India and South Africa actually demand more from their audit committees compared to those in the developed markets.

The jury is out and the verdict is in, according to most leftist commentators on the African National Congress (ANC) government. The South African political leadership has forgotten its institution...

Aim: Segment disclosure is expected to present essential information to meet the increased need of demand for published corporate disclosure of firms by stakeholders worldwide. This study examined the effect of Segment Reporting Practises on Investors’ Decision Making: A Comparative analysis of Nigeria and South Africa. Methodology: The research design was ex post facto. As of the end of 2023, the study’s population included 66 firms from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and 46 multinational corporations listed on the Nigeria Exchange Group.15 businesses from each of the two stock exchanges were chosen using the purposive sampling method. Data were obtained from the audited annual reports of the companies from the period 2015 to 2022 and analyzed using Panel regression analysis. Results: Findings revealed that segment reporting practices have an insignificant effect on investors’ decision-making of multinational firms in Nigeria while on the decision-making of investors for multinational companies in South Africa, segment reporting practice can be argued to have a considerable impact.it can be said that segment reporting practice has a significant effect on investors’ decision-making of multinational firms in South Africa. Conclusion: This comprehensive panel regression analysis delved into the intricate relationship between segment reporting practice, leverage, firm size, and investors’ decision-making for multinational organisations in both Nigeria and South Africa. Recommendation: The findings offer nuanced insights into how these factors contribute to shaping investment decisions, as measured by share prices, in the respective countries. While the results vary between the two nations, they collectively underline the complexity of factors influencing investors’ choices and highlight the need for a tailored approach to decision-making frameworks.

The mutual structure of various financial institutions has changed internationally, especially during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Various explanations have been offered. Some commentators argue the mutual organisational form has become redundant, others consider structural changes in the financial services industry as the main reason for organisational changes. In the United Kingdom the stronger emphasis on profitability had a profound impact on the decision to demutualise many building societies. In the USA the failure of mutual savings and loan associations resulted in demutualisation as a rescue strategy. This paper will explore the specific circumstances in South Africa of the changes in the mutual organisational form of building societies and insurance companies. The mutual form of organisation has a long history in South Africa. This paper will explore the reasons for the early choice of mutuality and the recent forces leading to the demutualisation of companies in order to list as public entities on stock exchanges, both in South Africa and abroad. South Africa experienced varying degrees of international isolation and sanctions, but, in the financial services industry, a strong international connection was sustained. The South African experience will be considered against the international changes in the financial services industry as well as the regulatory changes in South Africa. The paper will explain the peculiar South African conditions as the context for the organisational changes in South African mutual.

Introduction In September 2005, the African petroleum industry will host the 18th World Petroleum Congress (WPC) in Johannesburg, South Africa. The principal host country is South Africa, and the principal oil and gas producing countries of Africa (Algeria, Angola, Libya, and Nigeria) are co-hosts. Each will be among the largest exhibitors in the concurrent South Africa International Oil and Gas Exhibition (SAIOGE). Both the Congress and the Exhibition will be held September 25 to 29 in the outstanding and spacious Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg's modern business district. The Congress is expected to attract 3,500 executives and 350 journalists. Over 4,500 participants and exhibitors are expected at the Congress, with over 400 exhibitors and 25,000 visitors anticipated for the Exhibition. The Congress and Exhibition will be the largest oil and gas event held in Africa. Oil and gas production in Africa continues to expand with extensive development now being achieved in West Africa (e.g., Nigeria, Angola, Ivory Coast, and Gabon). At the end of 2003, total world proved remaining reserves of crude oil were estimated at 1,148 billion barrels and the share in African countries was 8.9%. In the same year, Africa's share of world crude oil production was 10.8% and consumption 3.3%. Total world proved remaining reserves of natural gas at the end of 2003 were estimated at 176 trillion cubic metres and the share in African countries was 7.8%. Africa's share of world natural gas production was 5.4% and consumption 2.6%. The progress made in Africa, along with the developments and markets served, are discussed below. South Africa The Republic of South Africa has a total area of 1,219,912 km2 with a population of 42.7 million, and is located on the southern tip of the continent of Africa. The country is divided into nine provinces, with Pretoria as the capital city, Cape Town as the legislative centre, and Bloemfontein as the judicial centre. South Africa itself has 11 languages. English is the predominant language of government, business, and the media, and can be understood by most people. The legal system is based on Roman-Dutch law and English common law. The Dutch settlers (the Boers) resisted the British encroachments after their seizure of the Cape of Good Hope area in 1806, but the Dutch were defeated in the Boer War (1899 – 1902). The resulting Union of South Africa operated under a policy of apartheid- the separate development of the races. The 1990s brought an end to apartheid politically, and ushered in Black majority rule and a democratic government. Economic Overview South Africa has the most advanced economy and the greatest industrial development on the African continent. It has an emerging middle-income market, with an abundant supply of natural resources and a stock exchange that ranks among the 10 largest in the world. The GDP per capita is $10,700 or about one third that of Canada's GDP. This is almost twice as large as that of those African countries with the next largest per capita GDP considered in this review.