Ramy El Dokani, Chairperson of the Egyptian Exchange, has said that the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) is looking into the Commercial International Bank’s (CIB) stock auction which took place two weeks ago and sparked controversy in the capital market.
The auction witnessed a strong demand for the bank’s shares before the start of the trading session on Thursday, 26 April. Egyptian buyers requested to acquire about two million shares at EGP 61 per share, while the closing price of CIB share reached EGP 51.20 the previous day. At the end of the session, the CIB stock closed at EGP 58.8 per share that day.
El Dokani added, on the sidelines of a workshop for journalists attended by Daily News last week, that the Egyptian Exchange does not see any irregularities in the session or suspicion of manipulation, but the FRA may have another opinion.
He pointed out that the Egyptian Exchange made adjustments in the methodology for calculating the closing price, which leads to avoiding sudden and sharp changes in the closing price.
He added that the amendments came in cooperation with the FRA, with the aim of preserving the interests of all investors.
The EGX said in a statement today that the experimental session aims to acquaint the implementing agencies with the new amendments and prepare the market for their smooth application without affecting the pace of work.
The Egyptian Exchange organized a trial session after the end of trading on Monday, 1 May, in the trading hall at the Egyptian Stock Exchange headquarters, on a new version of the trading system, on top of which are the adjustments for calculating the intraday closing price.
In a related context, El Dokani revealed that the Egyptian Exchange will announce gold prices on its screens daily during the coming period.
El Dokani added that the price announcement will coincide with the launch of the first gold investment fund in Egypt, which won the approval of the FRA on Monday.
In response to a question by “Daily News Egypt” about the expected performance of EGX denominated in dollars, El Dokani said that the improvement in the performance of the index is linked to the performance of the Egyptian pound’s exchange rate against the dollar, as well as the return of foreign dealings in the Egyptian market.
