{"id":603687,"date":"2023-08-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2023\/08\/20\/the-egx-is-inching-closer-to-a-record-high\/"},"modified":"2023-08-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-08-20T00:00:00","slug":"the-egx-is-inching-closer-to-a-record-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2023\/08\/20\/the-egx-is-inching-closer-to-a-record-high\/","title":{"rendered":"The EGX is inching closer to a record high"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning, wonderful people, and welcome to a new workweek. <\/strong>August may be one of the slowest months of the year in business terms, but you wouldn\u2019t know it from the amount of news in this morning\u2019s issue. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s still no single BIG STORY driving the agenda here at home <\/strong>(other than FX, of course), but two themes run through this morning\u2019s issue:<\/p>\n

#1- Banking: <\/strong> Hassan Abdalla <\/strong> will lead the Central Bank fo Egypt for another year, our friends at Banque Misr\u2019s MDI <\/strong> have applied for a license to become the nation\u2019s first challenger bank, and the National Dialogue wants to find a way to convince the CBE to get banks to make faster credit decisions <\/strong> (and to give more credit to manufacturers). <\/p>\n

#2- Energy: <\/strong>Cabinet has signed off on a delay in planned electricity price hikes<\/strong>, the EBRD looks like it\u2019s pushing forward plans to open the national electricity grid to the private sector through a wheeling framework<\/strong>, and our green economy just got a boost after OCI refuelled a Maersk ship fired by green methanol<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

^^ We have all of this and more in this morning\u2019s issue. <\/p>\n

<\/a> A nice boost for our nascent green economy: <\/strong>It was smooth sailing for the world\u2019s first<\/a> green-methanol-powered container ship<\/a>, which successfully refueled in East Port Said after docking at the port on Monday<\/a>, according to a Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) statement<\/a> on Friday. The still-unnamed vessel started its maiden voyage in Asia and passed through the Suez Canal on its way to Europe. It was fuelled by our friends at OCI Global under a partnership announced in June with shipping and logistics giant AP Moller-Maersk.<\/p>\n

SOUND SMART- OCI produces the green methanol in the US <\/strong>using captured biogas from landfills. You can get the lowdown<\/a> on the process here. Maersk is aiming to transport at least 25% of its ocean-borne cargo using green fuels by 2023. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s the ship called? <\/strong>The vessel, which can haul some 2.1k shipping containers called \u201cTEUs\u201d in industry-speak, doesn\u2019t have a formal name yet \u2014 it will get its name at a ceremony to be held in Copenhagen in late September. The 172-meter-long ship sails at a speed of a little over 17 knots.<\/p>\n

MARKET WATCH- <\/strong><\/p>\n

#1- The EGX is inching closer to a record high: <\/strong> The EGX30 is close to its 2018 peak after rising by more than 70% since October as local investors hedge against inflationary pressures and the weakened EGP, Bloomberg<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n

What analysts are saying: <\/strong> \u201cLocal investors in Egypt are currently facing one of the highest negative real rates in the world. This has made fixed deposits unattractive as an asset class and leading investors to pile into equities to protect their purchasing power,\u201d said a fund manager at Daman Investments, a Dubai-based non-banking financial services firm.<\/p>\n

#2- What the rest of 2023 has in store, according to S&P Global: <\/strong> Higher inflation, a weaker EGP and higher interest rates will define the macro picture here in the final months of the year, according to the latest assessment by S&P Global in a report picked up by Asharq Business<\/a>. Among the key takeaways: <\/strong><\/p>\n