Tech companies now top the world's biggest three companies: US chipmaker Nvidia has surpassed oil and gas colossus Saudi Aramco in market value, becoming the world’s third-most valuable public company behind fellow American tech giants Apple and Microsoft, Bloomberg reports. Nvidia’s value climbed 2.5% to USD 2.1 tn yesterday, extending a sharp rally that saw the company’s stock surge nearly 70% and add some USD 883 bn in value this year already.

Fuelling the rally: Nvidia’s stocks were buoyed by bumper 4Q 2023 earnings last month that recorded a 265% y-o-y jump on the back of a splurge in AI spending. Net income also skyrocketed 770% during the same period to USD 12.3 bn. At the time, Nvidia’s CEO and founder Jensen Huang described the results as a “tipping point” for the AI industry.

Meanwhile at Aramco: The value of the majority state-owned Saudi Aramco dropped to USD 2 tn yesterday. Aramco's stock has dipped over 5% this year due to oil supply cuts by OPEC+ and a potential follow-on offering in the company by the Saudi government.

ALSO WORTH MENTIONING-

  • BTC edges closer to all-time high: The cryptocurrency rose to as high as USD 68,583 during trading last night, just USD 417 short of an all-time record high reached in November 2021. BTC was up 58.9% YTD and 7.9% up over the last 24 hours as of midnight yesterday.

EGX30

30,542

+5.1% (YTD: +22.7%)

USD (CBE)

Buy 30.84

Sell 30.96

USD at CIB

Buy 30.85

Sell 30.95

Interest rates CBE

21.25% deposit

22.25% lending

Tadawul

12,435

+1.0% (YTD: +3.9%)

ADX

9,286

+0.1% (YTD: -3.1%)

DFM

4,327

-0.7% (YTD: +6.6%)

S&P 500

5,131

-0.1% (YTD: +7.6%)

FTSE 100

7,640

-0.6% (YTD: -1.2%)

Euro Stoxx 50

4,913

+0.4% (YTD: +8.7%)

Brent crude

USD 82.63

-0.2%

Natural gas (Nymex)

USD 1.92

+0.1%

Gold

USD 2,119.80

-0.3%

BTC

USD 67,869.51

+7.9% (YTD: +58.9%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The EGX30 rose 5.1% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 6.4 bn (46.4% above the 90-day average). Regional investors were net sellers. The index is up 22.7% YTD.

In the green: GB Corp (+17.0%), Talaat Moustafa Group (+15.4%) and Delta Sugar (+12.3%).

In the red: Orascom Construction (-3.1%), E-finance (-2.9%) and Eastern Company (-1.4%).

In Asia, it’s red as far as the eye can see, with Chinese, Korean, and Japanese benchmarksedging lower this morning as China’s big annual political get-together kicked off this morning. Traders are looking for clarity on the Communist Party’s economic policy for the year. Officials are now guiding for GDP growth of “around 5%” for this year, a bit below the 5.2% it advanced in 2023.

Futures point to a soft open for stocks in Europe, on Wall Street, and on Bay Street latertoday.

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