South Africa’s sugar industry sends SOS, and Alibaba’s AI push

The rand was trading at R16.25 against the US dollar on the morning of Tuesday, 22 September 2026.

South African equities posted slight improvements, with both the JSE All Share Index and the Top 40 Index up 0.10%.

Attention is turning towards the South African Reserve Bank, which is expected to announce its interest rate decision on Thursday.

Markets are pricing in another 25-basis-point increase due to rising fuel costs, following a May hike and a July hold.

On Wall Street, markets posted strong results, with the Dow Jones up 0.71%, the Nasdaq up 1.49%, and the S&P 500 up 2.26%.

This was mostly driven by a surge in tech shares. Meta led the charge with its shares surging by 11% after the launch of its new AI agent.

European equities also rose, with the STOXX 600 up 1.02% and the FTSE up 0.75% amid declining oil prices.

In Asia, results were positive due to the tech rally, with the Nikkei 225 rising 1.38%, the Hang Seng rising 0.41%, and the Shanghai Composite rising 0.18%.

In commodities, oil remained at around $101 per barrel, while gold fell to $4,328.98 per ounce.

On Tuesday morning, the rand was trading at R16.25 against the US dollar, R18.65 against the euro, and R21.76 against the British pound.

Important finance and investing news

Alibaba’s AI push: Alibaba Group announced it was developing a new AI model up to four times larger than its current flagship model and unveiled a next-generation chip it said is China’s most powerful. This caused the company’s shares to rise by 5% and comes as other Chinese tech companies race to develop domestic alternatives to Nvidia’s AI processors amid tightening US export controls. [Reuters]

Sugar industry sends SOS: SA Canegrowers has raised concerns that local retailers, as well as food and beverage manufacturers, are still prioritising cheap imports over locally produced sugar, thereby failing to honour the terms of the Sugar Industry Masterplan. This comes after the tariffs on imported sugar were raised last month. [BusinessDay]

$2.4 billion IPO falls short: National Stock Exchange of India’s $2.4 billion initial public offering has drawn lacklustre demand from retail investors, despite being one of the largest listings in India’s history. While the deal was 5.7 times oversubscribed, valuation concerns led to subscription levels falling short of those of other large Indian IPOs in recent years. [Bloomberg]

Paramount settles takeover lawsuit: Paramount settled a lawsuit brought by 12 US states on Monday, which argued that its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery would give it too much control over the movie and television industries. This paves the way for David Ellison’s $110 billion acquisition to be finalised. [Semafor]

Tariff hike for South Africa: The International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) has raised tariffs on certain imported steel, with many going from 0% to their World Trade Organisation-bound limits. This comes after ITAC launched an investigation in July into the impact of importing cold-rolled iron and steel products on the country’s struggling steel industry. [BusinessDay]