Only reform will trigger investment: “With the IMF, reform will be a must … I hope so because otherwise even big businesses like ours would reach a point where cannot do business,” an unnamed executive at a multinational operating in Egypt told Reuters. “It is a total crisis now.” Fakhry Elfiky, an Egyptian economist and former IMF official tells the wire, adding, “Egypt must be assured that it has the support of the big five in the IMF, including the United States and Britain … this is politics … Egypt needs this loan. If we are rejected, it would be a collapse.”

But in general, the IMF news has been mostly positive for sentiment. Renaissance Capital says the “finalisation of an IMF deal would be key to turning the market” considering the loan’s conditionality as well as the prospects for an imminent devaluation, passage of the VAT law and subsidy cuts, RenCap’s Head of Equity Strategy Daniel Salter wrote in a research note sent to us on Thursday.

EFG Hermes’ Simon Kitchen is more cautiously optimistic, saying stocks will probably remain volatile for now since devaluation is likely only to follow the conclusion of IMF talks. “The medium-term path is clear: as claims on real assets (by and large), Egypt equities will rise in local currency terms as the currency devalues and inflation rises,” he wrote in a note released Thursday.