What the markets are doing on 11 March 2021
The global ETF industry is going from strength to strength: Assets managed by the global passive investment industry grew to more than USD 15 tn last year as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) came close to surpassing the traditional index-tracking mutual funds for the first time ever, the Financial Times reports, citing figures from the Investment Company Institute. The global ETF industry had USD 7.71 tn under management by the end of 2020, just shy of the USD 7.76 tn held by index mutual funds came in at USD 7.76 tn.
And they’ve now likely outstripped mutuals: ETFs have continued to see large inflows in 2021, and consultancy ETFGI estimates the industry was worth some USD 8.83 tn as of the end of March.
The Biden administration’s proposed global minimum corporate tax rate won’t help developing countries, who are the most in need of higher tax revenues, senior diplomats and lobby groups told the FT. Under the Biden-led proposal at the OECD, the largest corporations will still pay most of their taxes where they’re headquartered, they said, adding that many developing countries are also under-represented in negotiations to push the plan. Several major developing economies are taking part in a rival bid with the UN that would give them the right to tax tech companies based on where their revenues come from.
FROM THE REGION- Saudi Arabia’s non-oil economy is finally recovering from the pandemic: Saudi Arabia's non-oil business activity expanded for the first time since the pandemic, growing 3.3% y-o-y in 1Q2021, the General Authority for Statistics said in a statement (pdf). However, the overall economy shrank 3.3% in the same quarter, dragged down by the oil sector which contracted by the most in a decade, according to Bloomberg.
EGX30 |
10,686 |
0.4% (YTD: -1.5%) |
|
USD (CBE) |
Buy 15.62 |
Sell 15.72 |
|
USD at CIB |
Buy 15.61 |
Sell 15.61 |
|
Interest rates CBE |
8.25% deposit |
9.25% lending |
|
Tadawul |
10,323 |
+0.9% (YTD: +18.8%) |
|
ADX |
6,209 |
-0.1% (YTD: +23.1%) |
|
DFM |
2,696 |
+0.4% (YTD: +8.2%) |
|
S&P 500 |
4,188 |
-1.0% (YTD: +11.5%) |
|
FTSE 100 |
7,124 |
-0.1% (YTD: +10.3%) |
|
Brent crude |
USD 67.88 |
-0.6% |
|
Natural gas (Nymex) |
USD 2.90 |
-1.0% |
|
Gold |
USD 1,837.20 |
|
|
BTC |
USD 55,449.39 |
-5.6% |
The EGX30 rose 0.4% yesterday on turnover of EGP 819 mn (34.2% above the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net sellers. The index is down 1.5% YTD.
In the green: MM Group (+4.9%), Oriental Weavers (+4.5%) and Fawry (+2.1%).
In the red: Edita (-2.2%), Ezz Steel (-1.7%) and Cleopatra Hospital (-1.6%).
Asian shares are deeply in the red this morning, and futures suggest that major indices in Europe, Wall Street and Bay Street will largely follow suit later today.