Your starter guide to investing in Egyptian securities:As banks across the country promise unprecedented interest rates through high-interest certificates of deposit, many are assessing their options to mitigate the impact of consecutive devaluations and high inflation. While purchasing assets like real estate, gold, and FX remain popular, investing in the stock could also be a place to park your hard-earned money.

Now is as good a time as any to consider stocks: All indicators show that the EGX is on a on the up as share prices rose 18.5% Y-t-D on the back of the government’s plans to sell stakes in at least 32 state-owned companies over the next year under a rebooted privatization program.

It’s a long-term game, according to FRA chairman Mohamed Farid. Concerns over short-term volatility can be overridden by the value that an exchange — and index trackers or instruments that are not prone to the movement of one single stock — can gain over a period of about 20 or 25 years, Farid argued in an interview back in 2019, when he was head of the EGX. The longevity of the incremental investment should yield investors not to worry about what happens in a single trading day.

WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE INVESTING-

If the corporation in which you own stocks is making gains, you will receive dividends or a portion of the net income. Also, if the value of your shares appreciates, you have also earned a capital gain. You then have to pay a capital gains tax.

REMEMBER- A 10% capital gains tax on EGX transactions was introduced last January for resident investors (though foreign investors in the bourse are exempt). Investors pay the tax on net portfolio earnings calculated at the end of the tax year, minus brokerage fees.

If the entity you have invested in fails to make gains, you will receive zero dividends. Naturally, expect to make a loss on your investment should you sell and the value of your shares drop.

HOW AND WHERE TO SET UP AN ACCOUNT-

The basics: To purchase securities — which can be in the form of stocks, bonds, mutual funds and more — you need to go through a few steps. First, you need to select a firm or broker, licensed by the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA), who will provide you with your personal unified code through which you will have a trading account. Only then can your broker trade securities on your behalf from both publicly traded companies listed on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) as well as from private companies offering securities on the market.

PSA- Check the firm’s track record and reputation, as well as its relationship with the regulator, to verify whether it has a history of violations.

Once you select your preferred broker and sign a contract, you can start clocking your orders. Depending on your brokerage firm and personal preferences, you can make those bookings online, via phone call, or by meeting physically with your broker.

THE HEAVY HITTERS-

The EGX releases a monthly ranking of brokerage firms based on trading volumes, with the top five usually being dominated by a few players. The five brokerage firms with the biggest market share in April were EFG Hermes’ Holding’s Hermes Securities Brokerage and EFG Hermes International Securities Brokerage, followed by CI Capital,Mubasher Securities and Pioneers Securities.

Commissions: Your traditional brokerage firms charge trading commissions depending on the client and the volumes of orders they make, as well as the brokerage firm’s size. Larger firms tend to charge higher commissions due to the block trades and IPOs they book on a regular basis, a senior broker tells us. Fees can range from as low as 0.5%, for higher volumes and smaller firms, to as high as 6%, he tells us.

FOR THE TECH SAVVY-

There’s online platforms, including Thndr — which received a brokerage license from the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) back in 2020. To sign up on the platform, you need to fill out a form to open a brokerage account, and then fund your account using Fawry, a bank transfer or a bank deposit.

Commission: There are no commissions while booking all your orders online.

It also has its own stock market simulator, which mimics the EGX’s trading environment.

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