The 8th BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit

The 8th BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit held in Goa recently, a fair share of focus was laid upon issues relating to energy and environment. The last couple of weeks have highlighted India’s commitment towards addressing global environmental concerns. First, it ratified the Paris climate change agreement; second, it signed the Kigali agreement to amend the Montreal Protocol (in order to cut down its hydrofluorocarbons by 85% of the values in 2024-26 by the year 2047); and now it has agreed to cooperate on a whole lot of sustainability issues through the Goa Declaration.

BRICS Summit 2016: Goa Declaration adopted by India, China, Russia, Brazil and South Africa

Here is the excerpt from the Goa Declaration adopted by the BRICS member nations:

We, the Leaders of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the Republic of India, the People's Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa, met on 15-16 October 2016 in Goa, India, at the Eighth BRICS Summit.

Recalling all our previous declarations, we emphasize the importance of further strengthening BRICS solidarity and cooperation based on our common interests and key priorities to further strengthen our strategic partnership in the spirit of openness, solidarity, equality, mutual understanding, inclusiveness and mutually beneficial cooperation. We agree that emerging challenges to global peace and security and to sustainable development require further enhancing of our collective efforts.

Absa Group, FirstRand Rated `Overweight' in Coverage at RMB Morgan Stanley

Absa Group Ltd., South Africa’s largest retail lender, and FirstRand Ltd., the nation’s second- largest financial services company, were rated “overweight” in new coverage at RMB Morgan Stanley.

“We expect them to deliver more sustainable earnings over the next two to three years than the market appreciates, driving a re-rating in the sector,” analysts including Greg Saffy and Derinia Chetty wrote in an e-mailed note to clients dated today. “We are overweight on Absa and FirstRand given their dominant domestic exposure and strong and improving franchises.”

Nedbank Group Ltd., controlled by Old Mutual Plc, had coverage initiated at “underweight” with a price estimate of 139 rand a share, while Standard Bank Group Ltd., the continent’s biggest bank, was rated “equal-weight” with a price estimate of 114 rand. Absa’s price estimate was 167 rand, while FirstRand’s was 22.65 rand.

Standard Bank surged the most since Jan. 3, adding 1.9 percent to 106 rand by 1:29 p.m. in Johannesburg. Absa snapped two days of losses, rising 0.7 percent to 138.44 rand, while FirstRand climbed 0.5 percent to 20.05 rand. Nedbank increased 0.3 percent to 131.95 rand.