{"id":598288,"date":"2019-05-21T02:11:10","date_gmt":"2019-05-21T02:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2019\/05\/21\/what-were-tracking-on-21-may-2019\/"},"modified":"2019-05-21T02:11:10","modified_gmt":"2019-05-21T02:11:10","slug":"what-were-tracking-on-21-may-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2019\/05\/21\/what-were-tracking-on-21-may-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"What we\u2019re tracking on 21 May 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A class act: <\/b>Tourism Minister Rania Al Mashat visited in hospital yesterday a number of tourists injured in the roadside bombing earlier this week \u2014 then took other members of the same group on a personal tour of the Giza Pyramids. At least 14 tourists were injured in the attack, which took place near the Pyramids.<\/p>\n

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We are just about at the half-way mark in Ramadan<\/b>, with 14 days left until Eid El Fitr, depending on the movement of the lunar calendar.<\/p>\n

And we have just two days left until interest rate day.<\/b> The central bank\u2019s monetary policy committee meets on Thursday to review key interest rates; all 12 economists we polled expect the CBE to leave rates on hold<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Checking in on the EGP\u2026 <\/b>Banks are buying greenbacks at about 16.97 and selling them for 17.07. The EGP is up about 90 piasters (or 5%) against the USD since the beginning of the year and approached the psychologically important EGP 17 barrier last week.<\/p>\n

[Correction:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>The email edition incorrectly noted that the EGP is \"down\" about 90 pt \u2014 the entire point is that the pound has strengthened against the USD and is accordingly up\u00a0<\/strong>about 90 piasters (or 5%).\u00a0 Too little sleep, too little coffee. We apologize.]<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2026and on the market: <\/b>The EGX30 closed down 1.1% yesterday on an anemic 415 mn in turnover, paring the index\u2019s total gains for 2019 to 2.6%.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> Good news for Egyptian cotton \u2014 from a US court. <\/b>A US district judge has ruled that top US retailers including Walmart and Bed Bath & Beyond \u201cmust face a lawsuit<\/a> claiming they sold linens that were falsely labeled \u2018100% Egyptian Cotton\u2019 or \u2018100% Long-Staple Egyptian cotton\u2019 despite being suspicious of their origin.\u201d Sounds like an opportune moment to pour some resources into the Cotton Egypt Association<\/a>\u2019s Egyptian cotton branding campaign<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n

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<\/a> A week before Saudi stocks join the MSCI EM index, foreign investors aren\u2019t buying:<\/b> Saudi equities currently make up just 0.09% of the average emerging market fund portfolio, with 90% of funds not holding any at all, according to a Copley Fund Research analysis of 189 funds, the FT writes<\/a>. The article notes that the low weighting is \u201chighly unusual\u201d given investors tend to buy prior to index inclusion. Saudi equities have also been in the FTSE Russell and S&P Dow Jones EM indices for two months, making the lack of buying activity even more surprising.<\/p>\n

Why the snub?<\/b> Fund managers interviewed by the salmon-colored paper cite the country\u2019s oil dependency, concerns about corporate governance and uncertainty about valuations: Saudi shares are trading at a historic price-to-earnings ratio that is 3x that of Turkey and Russia, 2x the UAE and 1.7x the MSCI EM index.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, smart policy in KSA: <\/b>\u201cSaudi Arabia will expand an excise tax charged on tobacco and soda to include electronic cigarettes and all drinks with added sugar,\u201d Bloomberg<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n

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SIGN OF THE TIMES #1: Credit quality is declining at big banks loaning to US businesses<\/b>, with non-performing loans on a sudden upswingdespite low interest rates and strong growth. \u201cNon-performing loans at the 10 largest commercial lenders rose 20 per cent, or US 1.6 bn, in the first quarter,\u201d according to an analysis by the Financial Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SIGN OF THE TIMES #2: A Democratic presidential hopeful wants to punish companies that fail to close the gender pay gap<\/b>, suggesting large companies should have to pay a fine equal to 1% of their profits for every 1% wage gap they allow<\/a>. We\u2019re generally not advocates of anything that sees government fining business, but this just makes sense.<\/p>\n

Also worth knowing about this morning:<\/b><\/p>\n