What the markets are doing on 1 June 2021
Investors are pumping the brakes on the red-hot US IPO market: The strength of first-day IPO “pops” in the US is dipping, a sign that investors are becoming more discriminating after throwing money at everything during the first two months of the year, the Financial Times reports. The share prices of companies listing on the NYSE rose by an average of more than 40% on their first day of trading during January and February as investors poured money into the IPO market. This has since fallen back, averaging around 20% in March and April and 18% in May.
And companies aren’t being quite as bold with their pricing: The final quarter of 2020 saw almost 40% of new companies price above their expected range, and a quarter doing the same in 1Q2021. So far in the second quarter, just 11% of companies have exceeded their pricing range.
Could Ether soon leave BTC in the dust? Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, has closed the gap on market leader BTC over the past month after proving more resilient during the recent crypto rout, according to Bloomberg. A downturn in the asset class saw Ether lose 11% of its value, leaving it USD 350 bn closer in market value to BTC, which plunged 37% from its recent peak.
Some market watchers are tipping it to one day become the preeminent crypto asset: Though BTC’s market value is more than double Ether’s, the latter “will likely exceed BTC at some point in the future, as Ethereum will be superior when it comes to innovation and developer interest,” one industry participant said. The currency is popular with blockchain-based financial services firms and digital collectibles, while efficiency upgrades are being made to the Ethereum network.
Others don’t see bitcoin being knocked off its perch: “BTC will still remain king of the cryptos,” said one market analyst. “It had too big of a lead for Ethereum to catch and has one major advantage, a fixed supply of only 21 mn coins.”
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EGX30 |
10,309 |
+0.1% (YTD: -4.9%) |
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USD (CBE) |
Buy 15.63 |
Sell 15.73 |
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USD at CIB |
Buy 15.63 |
Sell 15.73 |
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Interest rates CBE |
8.25% deposit |
9.25% lending |
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Tadawul |
10,551 |
-% (YTD: +21.4%) |
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ADX |
6,558 |
+0.7% (YTD: +30.0%) |
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DFM |
2,797 |
-0.4% (YTD: +12.3%) |
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S&P 500 |
4,204 |
+0.1% (YTD: +11.9%) |
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FTSE 100 |
7,022 |
-% (YTD: +8.7%) |
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Brent crude |
USD 69.32 |
+0.9% |
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Natural gas (Nymex) |
USD 3.04 |
+1.8% |
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Gold |
USD 1,909.50 |
+0.2% |
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BTC |
USD 37,047 |
+2.5% (as of midnight) |
THE CLOSING BELL-
The EGX30 rose less than 0.1% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 1.77 bn (26.6% above the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net sellers. The index is down 4.9% YTD.
In the green: CI Capital (+13.3%), Export Development Bank (+3.3%) and Orascom Financial Holding (+3.1%).
In the red: Sidi Kerir Petrochem (-2.4%), Ibnsina Pharma (-2.4%) and Cleopatra Hospital (-2.0%).