Bourse board member talks up rally, sees EGX30 closing higher at year’s end

It was another low-business night on the airwaves last night,with the ongoing EGX rally being the only big business story of the night.

EGX board member Rania Yacoub talked up the relative merits of buying gold and real estate (both overpriced, she suggested) vs the EGX in a chat with Masa DMC’s Ramy Radwan (watch runtime 6:32). Yacoub also thinks that the FX crisis means assets in the state privatization program are very attractively priced, making them appealing to strategics. That’s good for everyone: The premium paid by Emirati investors for a big stake in Eastern Company caused the tobacco-maker’s shares to re-rate, going from EGP 19.00 to EGP 28.00.

Yacoub also talked-up the rally that has seen the benchmark EGX30 gain nearly 32% year-to-date (see Planet Finance, below) — and close above 19k for the first time ever. Yacoub says she sees the EGX30 closing the year above where it now stands. The index is up some 120% since July 2022 as local investors look to park EGP somewhere that gives them a hedge against inflation.

MEANWHILE- Al Hayah Al Youm’s Mohamed Sherdy divided his coverage between Egypt-Japan talks (watch runtime 3:41) and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry’s statement (watch runtime 2:07) at the Arab League Council. The FM touched on GERD and Palestine in his remarks.

AND- Hottest summer since 1940: Masa DMC also covered a report by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, saying that this summer was the hottest on record since 1940 (watch runtime 3:19). Host Ramy Radwan accused major industrial economies of not being serious about curbing climate change.