Cabinet Economic Group approves Capital Markets Law amendments: The Cabinet’s Economic Group signed off on proposed amendments to the Capital Markets Law on Tuesday and sent the package to the Council of Ministers as a whole for review, according to a statement from the Investment Ministry. The amendments — which primarily aim to protect the rights of minority shareholders — enforce stricter penalties and fines for violations of the law and allow authorities to unwind stock market trades if there’s suspicion that international money laundering may be involved.

The amendments also cover the issuance of sukuks and the trading of futures contracts and give the EGX flexibility to set lower listing fees to attract smaller companies to the market. They also extend to GDR listings as well over-the-counter transactions. The new legislation will see the regulator launch a database of firms allowed to issue fair value reports, the statement read. The government had passed amendments in March that tightened the executive regulations governing the Capital Markets Law, giving the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority wider powers to investigate investors.