The administration of the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) requested from its listed companies to provide financial statements and any recent crucial incidents that may have led to the latest decline in share prices.
In a report, the administration also requested the completion of a report about the companies’ financial centres on 31 December 2015 to disclose their real situation to investors. This will in turn help form a realistic picture of the performance of these companies, without distortions that result in an unjustified state of panic.
This procedure aims to create a clear objective picture of the actual situation of companies listed in the EGX, and their recent financial indexes after the decline that hit global markets since the beginning of the new year due to the decline of petroleum prices to $30 per barrel.
A state of fear of a new economic recession has taken over the market, pushing global markets to withdraw for 10 consecutive sessions, whereby emerging companies have witnessed their largest decline yet, of 13% within only two weeks.
EGX Chairman Mohammed Omran said he believes in the importance of not interfering with the performance of markets, especially since the kinds of financial crises have become various, and have been recurrent throughout the year.
He nonetheless believes in the importance of the stock market’s role in creating investors’ awareness and revealing the real picture to them. “More transparency will help investors make more accurate decisions,” he added.
Omran explained that investors must learn to shield themselves from the market panic. In the recent decline in the markets in August, the Egyptian market was significantly affected for several days, then the losses were compensated during the period that followed the decline.
He asserted that the EGX has been disclosing the performance of its listed companies on a daily basis since January. This includes data on the price/earnings ratio, last profis, the price throughout the year, and the lowest price for each company on the EGX’s official website.
