Can you give us some? The Saudi stock exchange wants to break a record in 2021 for the most initial public offerings in any given year in its history, Khalid Abdullah Al Hussan, the exchange’s chief executive, told Bloomberg on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh. Saudi saw 22 IPOs last year, with four companies going public on its main market raising a combined USD 1.5 bn. The kingdom is currently looking at hosting cross-listings from companies based in other GCC countries as a starting point for “a very very healthy pipeline.”

Companies have raised more than USD 400 bn in the first 3 weeks of 2021, USD 170 bn more than the average for this time of year, Refinitiv data shows, according to the Financial Times. Fiscal stimulus by governments and central banks around the world have given debt and equity markets a boost, allowing equity managers to price out covid-19 by using low interest rates to expand or cash out, while rapidly rising valuations have encouraged more companies to go public sooner and raise capital on stock markets.

The EGX30 rose 0.4% on Wednesday on turnover of EGP 1.8 bn (23.5% above the 90-day average). Domestic investors were net sellers. The index is up 6.8% YTD.

In the green: Pioneers Holding (+4.2%), Eastern Company (+3.7%) and CIRA (+1.9%).

In the red: Egyptian Iron & Steel (-5.9%), Madinet Nasr Housing (-1.5%) and Credit Agricole (-1.1%).