China’sCountry Garden inches closer to default:China’s largest real estate developer, Country Garden, missed a USD 15.4 mn interest payment on a USD bond, pushing it one step closer to default, Bloomberg reported Friday. Bondholders are lobbying for a debt restructuring package, which would mark one of the country’s biggest corporate debt agreements, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. If Country Garden defaults on its USD 11 bn in outstanding offshore bonds, the country’s brewing property sector crisis could rapidly accelerate and have wide and far-reaching effects on the Chinese economy.

Sounds familiar? China’s property market has been in a slow-motion crisis for two years, which peaked in late 2021 when Evergrande — then the country’s second-largest developer — defaulted on its debt.

Yields on riskier European bonds hit seven-year high:Borrowing costs for Europe’s lower-rated corporate bond issuers have surged on the back of rising default fears, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The yields on EUR-dominated triple-C bonds are now 18% higher than those on government bonds, the salmon-colored paper added, citing an ICE BofA index.

EGX30

22,128

+2.4% (YTD: +51.6%)

USD (CBE)

Buy 30.83

Sell 30.96

USD at CIB

Buy 30.85

Sell 30.95

Interest rates CBE

19.25% deposit

20.25% lending

Tadawul

10,469

-1.5% (YTD: +0.2%)

ADX

9,307

-1.3% (YTD: +8.9%)

DFM

3,752

-1.5% (YTD: +12.5%)

S&P 500

4,224

-1.3% (YTD: +10.0%)

FTSE 100

7,402

-1.3% (YTD: -0.7%)

Euro Stoxx 50

4,025

-1.6% (YTD: +6.1%)

Brent crude

USD 92.16

-0.2%

Natural gas (Nymex)

USD 2.90

-2.0%

Gold

USD 1,994.40

+0.7%

BTC

USD 29,846.96

-0.7% (YTD: +80.8%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The EGX30 rose 2.4% at yesterday’s close on turnover of EGP 2.7 bn (20.6% above the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net sellers. The index is up 51.6% YTD.

In the green: Ezz Steel (+9.3%), TMG Holding (+8.1%) and Eastern Company (+6.9%).

In the red: Juhayna (-1.0%) and E-Finance (-0.3%).

Last weeks’ sell-off in global stocks is continuing in Asia this morning, where bourses across the region are in the red. Shares in Europe are also poised to open lower, though equity futures (for now) have US equities rising at the opening bell.

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