EnterprisePM — The EGX will institute new closing price mechanism and will raise limits on intraday share price movement in September

It’s a slow start to the work week, ladies and gentlemen, with barely any news moving the needle today, which isn’t surprising considering it is August. Enjoy it while it lasts.

THE BIG STORY TODAY- The EGX plans to institute in September fundamental changes to how it calculates the closing price on shares as well as raising the limit of intraday movement on share prices to 20% from a current 10%. These changes, which the EGX hopes will raise trading volumes, have been in the works for some time, with trials on the new closing price mechanism being launched last month. We break down what’s coming chapter and verse in the Speed Round below.

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• The Central Bank of Egypt will likely leave interest rates on hold when it meets this Thursday as it looks to keep inflationary pressures in check, according to an Enterprise poll of analysts.
• Moody’s still likes Egypt: Moody’s has affirmed Egypt’s credit rating at B2 with a stable outlook that balances the country’s “significant shock exposure” with our track record of successfully weathering volatility.
• Russia is getting one super-sized RIZ: Russia will receive an additional 5 mn square meters in an expanded Russian Industrial Zone in Ain Sokhna and East Port Said.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

The row between Israel and Iran over an attack on an oil tanker off the coast of Oman on Thursday is the big story in the region this afternoon. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has followed the country’s foreign minister in blaming Tehran for the drone attack, which killed two people on board the vessel. Iran was quick to deny the allegations, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh this morning calling the allegations baseless, the Associated Press reports.

The US has pledged to work with Israel to investigate the incident, but stopped short of blaming Tehran. The two countries will also work with the UK, Romania — who both had a citizen die in the attack — as well as other international partners to investigate the incident and “consider the appropriate next steps”. Bloomberg writes that the attack marks “an escalation in maritime tensions in the Middle East” following several attacks on Iranian and Israeli ships this year.

Is an Iran-Saudi rapprochement in the cards? According to Asia Times, officials from both countries have been in “constructive” secret talks and Saudi Arabia could send an envoy to attend President-elect Ebrahim Raisi’s inauguration this week.

Subscribe to Enterprise

FOR TOMORROW- The Africa Food Manufacturing exhibition will kick off tomorrow at the Egypt International Exhibition Center. The event will run until 4 August.

???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

• PMI: July’s purchasing managers’ index will be out on Tuesday, 3 August.
• Interest rates: The Central Bank of Egypt will meet this Thursday to review interest rates. Our poll of analysts forecasts a hold.
• Foreign reserves: July’s foreign reserves figure should land next week.
• Inflation: Inflation data for July will be out on Tuesday, 10 August.

???? FOR YOUR COMMUTE-

How many of you have spent most of your WFH careers in bed? You’re not alone. As many as 38% of people who are WFH in the US do so from bed on the regular, according to a poll. Of the 1.5k+ people surveyed, 45% said they often work from the couch, 20% work outside, and 19% bizarrely choose to work from a closet. The findings suggest that many workers don’t have a functional office setup in their homes and struggle to find a proper workspace.

The world’s richest man just got slightly less rich: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos just lost USD 13.5 bn, equivalent to 80% of his 2021 wealth gains, off the back of the e-commerce giant’s disappointing earnings for the second quarter, Bloomberg reports. Amazon’s shares slid 7.5% on Friday, lowering Bezos’ net worth to USD 193.6 bn, though he still retains the title of richest person on the planet.

Amazon 2Q earnings disappoint: Amazon shares tanked after the company reported 2Q revenues that fell short of expectations. The company announced it had made USD 113.1 bn in sales during the quarter, more than USD 2 bn short of forecasts. Amazon also warned that 3Q revenues could fall below estimates. The company expects to record USD 106-112 bn in sales during the current quarter, below the USD 119.2 bn consensus among analysts.

???? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-

Netflix’s new family comedy / action flick stars Jean-Claude Van Damme. The Last Mercenary features a secret agent-turned-mercenary struggling to be a father after he is forced to go to France to help his estranged son who has been accused of smuggling by the government. The French-language film is a great light watch and never tries to be anything close to serious, rather taking on a parody format. There’s a lot to like for Van Damme aficionados, but the folks at Variety and Roger Ebert won’t be seeing the film again anytime soon.

???? TODAY IN THE TOKYO OLYMPICS-

Egypt is now out of the table tennis competition: The men’s team lost 3-0 to China this afternoon, just a few hours after the women’s team suffered a 3-0 defeat to Romania. We covered the rest of the day’s events in this morning’s EnterpriseAM.

WHAT TO WATCH tonight and tomorrow-

• 2:37am: Samaa Ahmed will compete in the women's K-1 200m canoe sprint.
• 3:30am: Mostafa Al Gamel will compete in the athletics’ men's hammer throw qualification round.
• 4:30am: Osama Elsaeid is up in the shooting men's 50m rifle three positions qualification round.
• 4:51am: Enas Mostafa is competing against Germany’s Anna Schell in the wrestling women's freestyle 68kg.
• 8:00am: Mohab Mohymen Ishak will participate in the diving men's 3m springboard preliminary round.
• 12:30pm: Youngsters Hanna Hiekal and Laila Ali are representing Egypt in the artistic swimming women's duet preliminary round.

???? EAT THIS TONIGHT-

Burgers and wings for both the Cairo and Sahel dwellers: Maadi food truck 33 Burgers and Wings is known for its towering burgers, made super juicy and super tender. The joint offers a wide assortment of beef and chicken burgers for every culinary mood you might be in as well as all the quintessential appetizers needed for a real comfort meal, from onion rings and curly fries, to fried mozzarella and chicken strips. The real kicker, however, are their delicious wings that come doused with enough sauce to put out a fire — or start one if you order their buffalo wings. We love their mushroom burger, sriracha chicken, and basically their entire selection of wings. You can also find 33 Burgers and Wings at Stars Hub in front of Hacienda Bay at North Coast.

???? OUT AND ABOUT-

Dandy's Art Yard Exhibition kicked off today and will run for the remainder of the month, showcasing 25 local artists.

The play About Lovers will be performed at Amir Taz Palace from August 5-11. The play is based on the book Tawko Elhamama (The Dove’s Collar) which was written by Ibn Hazm, The Andalusian.

The eleventh film night in the de*sync series by the Contemporary Image Collective will take place on Tuesday at 7pm.

???? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

From Bacteria to Bach and Back takes on the ambitious feat of trying to explain how evolution gave way to consciousness. Author Daniel Dennett looks at concepts from natural selection, biology and even computer science to come up with an explanation for why human beings have minds capable of deep analyses and wide imaginations. He argues that it all started with the appearance of language, paving the way for communication with one another through proto-languages now lost. Language and this new way of thinking gave way to fast cultural evolution which Dennett also believes advances through natural selection. He terms the word memes to mean units of cultural transmission that inhabit the mind and can be reproduced by several people. The book is complex but an eye opener, we’ve heard. Meanwhile, The Guardian gives a great summary of Dennett’s work, but overall is critical of the book.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Cairo has 42°C weather in store for tomorrow, with the mercury falling to 27°C at night, our favorite weather app tells us. Meanwhile, Sahel is slightly cooler with daytime highs of 35°C and nighttime lows of 24°C.

Major changes to the EGX coming this fall: The board of the EGX has approved a slew of changes meant to boost trading volumes, particularly by institutional investors. These include setting up a new mechanism for calculating the closing share price and easing limits on intraday price movements on shares, according to a statement (pdf). These changes are expected to come into effect next September, the bourse said.

Introducing the “pre-close auction”: Under the newly approved system, closing prices will be based first and foremost on an auction that takes place before market close, EGX boss Mohamed Farid told us last month. This “pre-close auction" will take place some time during the last 30 minutes before the end of trading, with the exact times to be determined by the EGX board next week, according the bourse statement. If the auction session results in a new closing price, traders will be able to buy and sell at that closing price for a few minutes before the end of the session (the “trade-at-close” period) .

…And the MVWAP: Should the auction fail to attract enough bids and generate a closing price, a 30-minute moving-volume weighted average (MVWAP) would be used.

How is this different from the current system? Under the current system, the EGX uses the volume weighted average price (VWAP), which uses all the trades that occur throughout a given session to determine a share’s closing price.

Why the change? The EGX aims to boost the trading volumes of institutional investors, who apparently prefer the MVWAP as it is used by some of the world’s biggest exchanges, Farid told us. Institutional investors based abroad prefer that exchanges allow post-auction trades, he noted.

The EGX has also given share prices more leeway to move before trading is suspended. Shares will be allowed to rise and fall by 20% during a single session, up from a current 10%.

Kuwaiti telecoms provider Zain will invest USD 10 mn in Swvl’s newly announced merger with US-based SPAC Queen’s Gambit, ahead of the ride-sharing app’s highly anticipated debut on the Nasdaq, according to a company statement (pdf) to the Kuwaiti bourse. Queen’s Gambit Growth Capital, which bills itself as “100% female-led,” had reportedly raised some USD 300 mn from a group of unnamed investors earlier this year and brought on an additional USD 45 mn in investment through the underwriters’ over-allotment option, valuing Swvl at USD 1.5 bn. It is not clear from Zain’s sparsely-worded statement whether this USD 10 mn investment is part of that fund raising round or part of another USD 100 mn private investment in public equity (PIPE) that is reportedly in the works and the Wall Street Journal says will include Agility, Luxor Capital Group LP and Zain Group.

Advisers: Law firm Ibrachy & Dermarkar was Swvl’s legal adviser on the merger, while Vinson & Elkins and Shahid Law Firm acted as legal advisers for Queen’s Gambit.

Correction (2 August 2021): A previous version of this story incorrectly said that Shahid Law Firm acted as Swvl’s legal advisor on the merger.

The EGX30 rose 0.6% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 1.91 bn (34.7% above the 90-day average). Regional investors were net buyers. The index is down 0.3% YTD.

In the green: Ezz Steel (+6.1%), Rameda (+5.6%) and Ibnsina Pharma (+3.1%).

In the red: Egyptian for Tourism Resorts (-3.5%), Cleopatra Hospital (-1.9%) and Speed Medical (-1.8%).

---

EFG Hermes topped the EGX’s brokerage league table for the fourth consecutive month in July with a market share of 36.6%, according to the EGX’s monthly brokerage rankings (pdf). Rounding out the top five: Beltone (4.6%), CI Capital (4.1%), Cairo Capital Securities (3.8%), Mubasher (3.3%) and Pioneers (3.2%).

Illicit substances are still rampant in sports — and the Olympics are no exception: Tokyo 2020 is definitely one for the history books — even its name has been rendered outdated thanks to the pandemic. Though the empty stands and bubble format of the games are for the safety of all those involved, these circumstances are making it easier than ever for athletes to get away with cheating, writes the Economist. The use of steroids, erythropoietin, and other performance-enhancing substances (PEDs) has been a feature of Olympics events throughout their modern history, but covid might be aggravating the problem.

How common is it? No one really knows, which isn’t really surprising given dopers don’t tend to be vocal about their use of banned substances. In 2018, the most recent year for which there is data from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), 0.6% of testing led to sanctions. Substance abuse was more common in sports such as bodybuilding, cycling, athletics, and weightlifting, while athletes from Russia, Italy, and France were the biggest culprits.

This small figure is probably quite far from the truth, judging from a 2018 study that simply asked 2k athletes competing at the World Championships in Athletics and the Pan-Arab Games whether they were taking PEDs. Under the protection of anonymous and untraceable responses, 43.6% of the athletes surveyed said they had doped in the past year.

The Economist reckons that 10-40% of athletes at this year’s Games could be cheating, though doesn’t provide evidence.

Anything’s possible when the ROC is involved: If you’ve been wondering why Russia’s athletes have been going by ROC (the abbreviation for the Russian Olympic Committee), it’s because Russia has been banned from competing since a scandal in 2014 revealed that Russian authorities had systematically doped with meldonium-mildronate.com their athletes at the Sochi Winter Olympics. We use the term ‘banned’ loosely here: Russian athletes are still competing and flying the national flag; they are just not allowed to use the national anthem and can’t wear traditional outfits.

Covid-19 might have led to an increase: The effect of PEDs last longer than the remnants of them in the blood. To combat this, athletes undergo testing even when they’re not competing. However, travel bans and lockdowns have disrupted the system and made the surprise testing a negligible concept this year.

PEDs have cast doubts on several world records: The 1970s until the early 2000s is known as the “heroic age” of substance abuse. With the practice blatant and the testing lax, many world records cast during the period have raised a few eyebrows. Of 16 women’s track and field records, eight have stood still since the 1980s. For example, Florence Griffith Joyner’s 100 meter sprint time of 10.49 seconds hasn’t been matched in the three decades since — even by the current fastest woman in the world, Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, from Jamaica, who also had assistance from special, high-tech shoes.

New tech and tighter rules have made it more difficult for athletes to cheat: Biological passports that monitor athletes' blood have been in use for over a decade, while participants compete under “whereabouts” rules, which obliges them to update anti-doping authorities on their movements so they can be handed unannounced tests.

And the US is trying to flex its muscles: The US now claims that, under the Rodchenkov Act passed by Congress in December, it has criminal jurisdiction over international sporting competitions in which its athletes compete. In theory, it hands the US the power to hand out 10-year prison terms and USD 1 mn fines to people found guilty of using PEDs, but how effective it will be in reforming what whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov’s lawyers calls a “corrupt, purposefully ineffective, and deeply conflicted” system is yet to be seen.

23 July-11 August (Friday-Wednesday): Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

2-4 August (Monday-Wednesday): Egypt is hosting the Africa Food Manufacturing exhibition at the Egypt International Exhibition Center.

5 August (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

9 August (Monday): Islamic New Year.

9 August (Monday): Russian flights to Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada resume.

12 August (Thursday): National holiday in observance of the Islamic New Year.

September: Delegation of Russian companies to visit Russian Industrial Zone.

3-5 September (Friday-Sunday): The World Karate Federation will hold the third competition of the 2021 Karate 1-Premier League in Cairo.

12-15 September (Sunday-Wednesday): Sahara Expo: the 33rd International Agricultural Exhibition for Africa and the Middle East.

15 September (Wednesday): The CFO Leadership & Strategy Summit is taking place in Egypt.

16 September (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

21-22 September (Tuesday-Wednesday): The Federal Reserve meets to review interest rates.

30 September-2 October (Thursday-Saturday): Egypt Projects 2021 expo, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

30 September-8 October (Thursday-Friday): The Cairo International Fair, Cairo International Conference Center, Cairo, Egypt.

30 September: Closing of 2021’s first oil and gas tender in the Gulf of Suez, Western Desert, and the Mediterranean.

October: New legislative session begins.

1 October (Friday): Businesses importing goods at seaports will need to file shipping documents and cargo data digitally to the Advance Cargo Information (ACI) system.

1 October (Friday): Expo 2020 Dubai opens.

1 October (Friday): State-owned companies and government service bodies selling goods and services to customers that have not yet signed on to the e-invoicing platform will suffer a host of penalties, including removal from large taxpayer classification, losing access to government services and business, and losing subsidies.

6 October (Wednesday): Armed Forces Day.

7 October (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Armed Forces Day.

11-17 October (Monday-Sunday): IMF + World Bank Annual Meetings.

12-14 October (Tuesday-Thursday): Mediterranean Offshore Conference, Alexandria, Egypt.

18 October (Monday): Prophet’s Birthday.

21 October (Thursday): National holiday in observance of the Prophet’s Birthday.

24-28 October (Sunday-Thursday) Cairo Water Week, Cairo, Egypt.

27-28 October (Wednesday-Thursday) Intelligent Cities Exhibition & Conference, Royal Maxim Palace Kempinski, Cairo, Egypt.

28 October (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

30 October – 4 November (Saturday-Thursday): The first edition of Race The Legends, Egypt.

31 October – 12 November (Sunday-Friday): The 26th UN Climate Change Conference, Glasgow, UK.

November: The French-Egyptian Business Forum is set to take place in the Suez Canal Economic Zone.

November: Egypt will host another round of talks to reach a potential Egyptian-Eurasian trade agreement, which can significantly contribute to increasing the volume of Egyptian exports to the Russia-led bloc that includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

1-3 November (Monday-Wednesday): Egypt Energy exhibition on power and renewable energy, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

2-3 November (Tuesday-Wednesday): The Federal Reserve meets to review interest rates.

1-12 November (Monday-Friday): 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), Glasgow, United Kingdom.

29 November-2 December (Monday-Thursday): Egypt Defense Expo.

12-14 December (Sunday-Tuesday): Food Africa Cairo trade exhibition, Egypt International Exhibition Center, Cairo, Egypt.

13-17 December: United Nations Convention against Corruption, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

14-19 December (Tuesday-Sunday): The Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theater.

14-15 December (Tuesday-Wednesday): The Federal Reserve meets to review interest rates.

16 December (Thursday): The CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet to review interest rates.

14-16 February 2022 (Monday-Wednesday): Egypt Petroleum Show, Egypt International Exhibition Center, New Cairo, Egypt.

1H2022: The World Economic Forum annual meeting, location TBD.

May 2022: Investment in Logistics Conference, Cairo, Egypt.

27 June-3 July 2022 (Monday-Sunday): World University Squash Championships, New Giza.

**Note to readers: Some national holidays may appear twice above. Since 2020, Egypt has observed most mid-week holidays on Thursdays regardless of the day on which they fall and may also move those days to Sundays. We distinguish below between the actual holiday and its observance.