Cairo – Mubasher: The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) has outperformed the region’s stock markets in February, Zawya MENA reported.
The benchmark EGX30 index jumped 4.8% last month, the highest rate among the bourses in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the new agency added in a report.
“The strong momentum in stocks was driven by Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) 100 basis point cut in the overnight lending rate to 15.75%, which was again due to the sharp fall in consumer price inflation,” investment research analyst at Century Financial Yogesh Khairajani told Zawya.
It is worth noting that the EGX30 index has gained 677 points in February, closing the month at 14,803 points.
“With a US-China deal in sights and a strong recovery in the Egyptian pound, the Egyptian market is expected to continue to accelerate,” Iyad Hweij, managing director of Allied Investment Partners, told Zawya by email.
Hweij noted that government initial public offerings (IPOs) set to be announced this year is projected to attract investments.
He expected any further cut in the CBE’s interest rate would be “unfavourable macroeconomic trends may thwart a complete recovery of the Egyptian market in 2019.”
Last Friday, public business sector minister Hisham Tawfiq stated that Eastern Co’s private placement had been oversubscribed 1.8 times at EGP 17 per share, which is a 3% premium to the stock’s closing price in Thursday’s trading session.
The Egyptian petroleum minister expected Engineering for the Petroleum and Process Industries (Enppi) to float a stake on the EGX in the first half of 2019 or prior to the end of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan.
The EGX30 index has fallen by 13.21% in 2018 at 13,035.77 points, losing 1,983.38 points, with a turnover of EGP 188 billion exchanged through 43 billion shares.
