The introduction of single stock futures to a market presents the opportunity to assess an individual company's response to futures trading directly, in contrast to the market-wide impact obtained from index futures studies. The listed shares of thirty-eight South African companies were evaluated in terms of a possible volatility effect due to the initial trading of their respective single stock futures contacts. A GARCH(1,1) model established a volatility structure (pattern of behaviour) per company. Results, in general, showed a reduction in the level and changes in the structure of spot market volatility post single stock futures.

Bank financial performance and relative future financial performance are important issues to stakeholders like management, shareholders, investment analysts and portfolio managers.This paper provides evidence that bank financial performance expressed as return on assets

Due to technological developments, the complicated world of engineering and its associated products are continuously becoming more specialized. Short-term insurers provide engineering insurance to enable the owners and operators of engineering assets to combat the negative impact of the associated risks. It is, however, a huge challenge to the insurers of engineering insurance to manage the particular risks against the background of technological enhancement. The skills gap in the short-term insurance market and the engineering environment may be the main factor which inhibits the growth of the engineering insurance market. The objective of this research embodies the improvement of financial decision-making concerning the claims handling process of engineering insurance. Secondary as well as primary data were necessary to achieve the stated objective. The secondary data provided the background of the research and enabled the researchers to compile a questionnaire for the empirical survey. The questionnaire and a cover letter were sent to the top 10 short-term insurers in South Africa that are providing engineering insurance. Their perceptions should provide guidelines to other short-term insurers who are engaged in engineering insurance, as they are regarded as the market leaders of engineering insurance in South Africa. The empirical results of this research focus on the importance of various claims handling factors when assessing the claims handling process of engineering insurance, the problem areas in the claims handling process concerned, as well as how often the stipulations of engineering insurance policies are adjusted to take the claims handling factors into account.

The introduction of single stock futures to a market allows for a per company impact-assessment of futures trading activity. Thirty-eight South African companies were evaluated in terms of a possible price and volume effect due to the initial trading of their respective single stock futures contracts. An event study revealed that SSF trading had little impact on the underlying share prices while a normalised volume comparison pre to post SSF trading showed a general increase in spot market trading volumes.

Terwyl die Gesondheidsjaar nou sy einde nader, is dit dan ook gepas dat ons hier saam is om ’n konferensie oor bejaardesorg by te woon, want geriatrie impliseer inderdaad die wegvloeiende gety van die lewe, tanende vitaliteit, afnemende gesondheid en ’n fase van diepe afhanklikheid op gespesialiseerde en insiggewende helpers