30/09/2026

BIZ & FINANCE WEDNESDAY | SEPT 30, 2026

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Australia’s central bank lifts key rate to 15-year high Beijing announces rate cuts, interest subsidies to spur economy BEIJING: China yesterday cut the rate on a key central bank lending facility and announced interest sub sidies on new commercial mort gages for eligible first-time home buyers, its latest effort to support a slowing economy. The People's Bank of China will cut the rate on its pledged supple mentary lending (PSL) by 25 basis points, while the rate on one-year PSL will be cut to 1.5% from 1.75%, it said in a statement. The PBOC will also broaden the PSL facility to support investment in water, power grid, computing, com munications, urban pipeline and logistics networks, it said. It raised the quota for its sci-tech innovation and technological up grading relending facility by 200 billion yuan (RM104 billion) to 1.4 trillion yuan, and increased its relending quota for farm and small Meanwhile, the central bank and financial regulator said China will subsidise interest payments on new commercial mortgages for eligible first-home buyers nationwide from Oct 1. – Reuters businesses by 500 billion yuan to 4.85 trillion yuan.

China’s RoboTechnik slides in Hong Kong debut as new listings trade mixed HONG KONG: Chinese automation equipment maker RoboTechnik Intelli gent Technology fell as much as 9.8% in its Hong Kong trading debut yesterday, after raising HK$5.18 billion (RM2.69 billion) in its share sale. The stock dropped to as low as HK$393.20, compared with its offer price of HK$436, after opening at HK$419.60. RoboTechnik was one of four companies to start trading in Hong Kong yesterday, in a test of investor appetite for new share offerings amid a revival in the city’s IPO market. Hong Kong IPOs, including secon dary listings, have raised US$46.54 billion so far this year, a 94.3% jump from a year earlier, LSEG data showed. Chinese printed circuit board maker Shenzhen Kinwong Electronic opened 7% lower at HK$65, compared withits HK$69.88 offer price, after raising HK$5.1 billion. Specialty chemicals and semicon ductor materials maker Red Avenue New Materials Group opened 9.1% lower at HK$40 versus its HK$44 offer price, after raising about HK$3 billion. Robotics technology company Direct Drive Tech opened 4.1% higher at HK$22.48, versus its HK$21.60 offer price, after raising HK$1.08 billion. “I don’t think the IPO market has the same punch as before,” said Dickie Wong, executive director of research at uSMART Securities. “Because of US-China tension in AI and chips sector and fears that AI is getting frothy, names in AI, robotics and PCB are no longer being chased the way they were. “People are picking more carefully now. Theme alone is not enough. Valuation and recent momentum matter more. Subscription demand and first-day trading have both cooled a lot.” – Reuters SINGAPORE: Singapore will allocate S$1.45 billion (RM4.63 billion) to five asset managers to boost its equity market, Monetary Authority of Singa pore deputy chairman Chee Hong Tat said yesterday. It is the third batch of funding to asset managers under the S$6.5 billion Equity Market Development Pro gramme. The aim of the programme is to strengthen the local asset management ecosystem and increase interest in Singapore’s equity market. The managers receiving the funds are Amundi, Franklin Templeton, HSBC Asset Management, M&G Investments, and Natixis Investment Managers. “The managers have strong track records in regional markets, and they are committed to continue making signi ficant allocation to Singapore as an integral part of their investment stra tegies,” said Chee. Chee also announced a S$20 million grant to benefit small- and mid-cap stocks and new listings. – Reuters S$1.45 billion allocation to boost S’pore equity market

SYDNEY: Australia’s central bank raised its cash rate to a 15-year high yesterday in its fourth increase of the year, saying some inflation risks have materialised and that it was prepared to hike further if needed. Wrapping up its September policy meeting, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) board voted unanimously to lift rates by 25 basis points to 4.6%. That brought the tightening this year to a full percentage point. The move was widely expected, but RBA governor Michele Bullock said the board did consider keeping interest rates steady this time, adding that the central bank is now trying to look ahead and see what

findings sooner and kept Australian agencies updated as more facts emerged.” OpenAI, Anthropic and other major AI developers have promised to prioritise making models that have safety guardrails to mitigate risks and that are also aligned with human values. The AI Security Institute (AISI), an initiative under the UK government, published a study on Monday showing that GPT-6 Astra went off the rails more often during testing than its predecessors, GPT-5.6 Sol and GPT-5.5. In simulations, GPT-6 spontaneously carried out cyberattacks at rates signi ficantly higher than those observed for the other two interfaces. – AFP warned that inflation risks could be materialising. Brent crude has climbed nearly 20% since the RBA last met in August, threatening a broadening of price pressures. Rising fuel costs are expected to have pushed headline inflation back up to 4.1% in August, well above the RBA’s target band of 2% to 3%, while underlying inflation likely remained sticky at 3.6%, data due today are forecast to show. “There have been further disruptions to global oil supply and recent data suggest that growth and inflation in Australia have been higher than expected,“ said the board in a statement. “The board will continue to do what it considers necessary to bring inflation sustainably back to target, including increasing the cash rate target further if needed.” Economy minister Jim Chalmers told reporters the big factor for inflation was the re-escalation of the war in the Middle East. “Our inflation challenge is being turbocharged by a war on the other side of the world,“ he said after the rates decision. “Australians are paying a very hefty price for that war in the Middle East, and today that price became a bit steeper.” Higher fuel prices as the global oil supply continues to be disrupted were being passed through to prices of other goods and services, the bank said. “AI-related demand is driving rapid growth in global prices for technology-related goods,“ it added. The RBA’s 100 basis points of tightening this year has more than reversed the 75 basis points of policy easing from 2025. – Reuters, AFP

o Decision unanimous, board says inflation risks materialising and cannot rule out more hikes

bond yields fell six basis points to 4.974%. Markets are implying a 33% probability for a hike in November but are almost fully pricing in a rise by February next year. A vast majority of economists had predicted yesterday’s hike given that inflation came in hotter than expected in July, oil prices had surged anew amid few signs of a resolution in the Gulf conflict, and policymakers had repeatedly

the rate rises to this point will do to the economy. “What we are predicting – what is the hope here – is that this will be restrictive enough, those four interest rate increases, to bring things down. Now, will it be enough? I don’t know,” Bullock said at the post-decision press con ference. The Aussie dollar slipped 0.4% to $0.6989 and three-year government

Bullock speaking at a press conference in Sydney yesterday after Australia’s central bank raised its cash rate to 4.6%. – REUTERSPIC

OpenAI cancels release of newest model on safety concerns SAN FRANCISCO: OpenAI will not release its newest artificial

agencies, an Australian government health statistics portal and Hugging Face, a repository of AI models. OpenAI apologized on Monday for not properly responding to the Australia incident, which involved its AI models accessing government websites without authorisation. “We are sorry and working to do better in the future,” OpenAI said in a blog post, adding that the company would explain “what we know, what we have changed, and what we will do to rebuild trust with the Australian people.” “Our aim was to give affected agencies a detailed account once our investigation was complete,” the ChatGPT-maker said. “However, we should have shared preliminary

communicates back to the user about the type of work it’s done,“ Saachi Jain, OpenAI’s head of safety systems, said in a statement. “We want to make sure our model development is safe no matter whether that’s in the company, or when we ship it to users. But when we ship it to users, we have an extremely high bar in terms of safety and alignment,” Jain continued. Concerns about AI safety have escalated in recent months after models developed by OpenAI and rival lab Anthropic were involved in security incidents during testing. Agents built with OpenAI’s models have inappropriately accessed web sites maintained by US federal

intelligence (AI) model, known as Astra 6.1, after internal testing by the ChatGPT-maker revealed it did not meet safety standards, the company confirmed on Monday. The news comes one day before the AI giant hosts an annual developer conference known as OpenAI DevDay in San Francisco, where the company is expected to make several announcements -- though it is unclear if a new version of Astra will be among them. Astra 6.1 was an improvement over previous models in some aspects, but “it didn’t quite meet the bar in terms of staying within scope and authorisation, and how it