I am very excited to have my next guest. He is the Executive Chairman of the Egyptian Stock Exchange. Welcome to the show, Omar Radwan. Omar, thank you so much.
Thank you very much for having me.
It has been a pretty historic day for you and for the Egyptian Stock Exchange. You have just signed an MoU with ADX. Could you share more details?
This is Tabadul. We are signing an MoU today to start exploring the idea of exchanging trades and exchanging the work of brokers and market makers. What we are looking forward to is seeing more market makers from this part of the world operating within the Egyptian Stock Exchange — allowing the Egyptian market to witness more investments coming from the Gulf. Also to find a way for more pan-Arab cooperation. Tabadul now involves more than 11 markets, and the 11th market went live today. It is exciting that all these markets can now exchange investments and investors, and market players from all these different markets can operate within the boundaries of the bigger Tabadul platform.
What should international investors watching Fintech TV know about the Egyptian Stock Exchange?
Many, many things. The Egyptian Exchange has been an emerging market for the past 25 years. Last year witnessed dramatic improvement and dramatic increases in all our metrics. In terms of trading volumes, last year it was 3.5 billion Egyptian pounds — about $70 million a day. This year we are talking about an average of 10 billion Egyptian pounds, which is closer to $200 million. A threefold increase in daily trading volumes on the equity side alone. If you add trading on fixed income and Treasury bills, the number reaches billions of dollars on a daily basis. We have also had more than half a million new investors into the Egyptian Exchange this year in nine months — compared to close to 300,000 for the whole of last year. Just last week we had a day where 5,000 new investors registered — a new investor being coded on the Egyptian Exchange every 45 seconds.
Number of transactions a day were in the average of 10,000 to 20,000. Today we are talking about 400,000 plus. The stock market has been going up — 40% last year, 30% this year. In dollar terms, 15% plus on the EGX 30, which is the main 30 stocks. But the EGX 70 is up closer to 60% since the beginning of the year.
On the macro side — the Egyptian economy is booming on all levels. GDP is growing at over 5%. Reserves are at their historic peak of $57 billion. The IMF programme is reaching an end successfully without the need for any renewal. Capital gains tax on listed securities has been completely cancelled. Stamp duty on daily trading for non-residents has been reduced from one and a quarter per mil to half a per mil — a 60% reduction in the cost of trading for non-residents. We also introduced derivatives for the first time in March, and we are reinvigorating the short selling system, expecting it to start kicking in soon — adding more depth and liquidity to the market.
Net foreign assets in the banking sector have gone from negative $29 billion to positive $29.5 billion in two and a half years. Credit default swaps on sovereign debt are at historic lows not seen in ten years. Tourists reached 19 million last year. Suez Canal revenues are growing 25% in the past couple of months. Remittances are at their peak. Every foreign research house writing about Egypt right now is writing positive. They are all competing to publish more positive news coming from Egypt.
Thank you very much.
Sorry for taking your time. Thank you so much.
