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Monday, 9 May 2022

Emerging-market investors are in “sell everything” mode

Emerging-market investors are in “sell everything” mode: Not even value stocks are safe in emerging markets right now as investors respond to the Federal Reserve’s aggressive tightening cycle by dumping anything and everything, Bloomberg reports.

Value vs. growth: Value stocks — companies with cheaper valuations and higher dividend payouts — tend to do well in higher interest rate environments as investors rotate out of the more expensive, dividend-less growth stocks. Why? Higher earnings and larger dividends are a better hedge against rising borrowing costs than growth companies, whose valuations are more reliant on future earnings and vulnerable to rising rates.

But right now, EM investors haven’t got appetite for either and are selling both types of stocks as higher US rates drains liquidity from global markets. The MSCI EM Value index has dropped 13% over the past three months, performing only marginally better than the 16% fall in MSCI’s gauge for growth stocks. “This goes back to the basic emerging-market investment philosophy: You generally don’t want to be long EM until the Fed’s basically done,” said one analyst.

Is EV giant Rivian losing power just months after its blockbuster IPO? It certainly seems that way, with sources telling CNBC that Ford plans to dump some 8 mn of its 102 mn shares in the Amazon-backed electric vehicle maker after the post-IPO lockup period for the stock expired yesterday. Another unidentified investor also plans to sell 13-15 mn of the once high-flying EV’s shares, which have tanked by more than 50% since its USD 12 bn IPO last November — the biggest in all of 2021. Both blocks of shares will be priced at USD 26.90 each, according to CNBC.

Up

EGX30

11,109

+0.6% (YTD: -7.0%)

None

USD (CBE)

Buy 18.44

Sell 18.53

None

USD at CIB

Buy 18.45

Sell 18.53

None

Interest rates CBE

9.25% deposit

10.25% lending

Up

Tadawul

13,820

+0.6% (YTD: +22.5%)

Down

ADX

10,073

-0.1% (YTD: +18.7%)

Down

DFM

3,695

-1.0% (YTD: +15.6%)

Down

S&P 500

4,123

-0.6% (YTD: -13.5%)

Down

FTSE 100

7,388

-1.5% (YTD: +0.1%)

Down

Euro Stoxx 50

3,629

-1.8% (YTD: -15.6%)

Up

Brent crude

USD 112.39

+1.3%

Down

Natural gas (Nymex)

USD 8.04

-8.4%

Up

Gold

USD 1,882.80

+0.4%

Down

BTC

USD 33,558

-2.4% (YTD: -26.7%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The EGX30 rose 0.6% at yesterday’s close on turnover of EGP 907 mn (3.4% above the 90-day average). Local investors were net buyers. The index is down 7.0% YTD.

In the green: Fawry (+6.5%), Madinet Nasr Housing (+5.4%) and Eastern Company (+5.1%).

In the red: Cleopatra Hospitals (-4.4%), Mopco (-4.0%) and GB Auto (-3.5%).

Market volatility won’t be letting up this week: It’s a sea of red in both the Asian markets and stock futures in Europe and the US, as the market sell-off triggered last week by the Fed rate hike continues.

Enterprise is a daily publication of Enterprise Ventures LLC, an Egyptian limited liability company (commercial register 83594), and a subsidiary of Inktank Communications. Summaries are intended for guidance only and are provided on an as-is basis; kindly refer to the source article in its original language prior to undertaking any action. Neither Enterprise Ventures nor its staff assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, whether in the form of summaries or analysis. © 2022 Enterprise Ventures LLC.

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