Egypt Watch

Egyptian government appoints new head of the stock exchange market

The Egyptian government has appointed Ramy El-Dukkani as chairman of the board of directors of the Egyptian Stock Exchange and Hebatallah El-Serafy as his deputy.

The Egyptian Stock Exchange was ranked as the worst stock exchange in the world in 2021. It was also among the five worst stock exchanges in 2020.

The stock market’s performance was inferior during the first half of this year. Its primary index lost about 25% of its value, and the capital of listed companies declined by more than 119 billion pounds. Last November, the Egyptian government announced decisions to support the stock market, including reducing trading costs, abolishing stamp tax, and lowering the capital gains tax. However, the stock exchange did not recover.

Mohamed Maher, head of the Egyptian Securities Association, said that the decrease in the number of listed companies led to weak market capital, with individuals focusing on speculative stocks and not favouring long-term investment. Economist Hani Tawfik said that to save the stock market, it is necessary to work on diversifying the stimulus economic policies and improving the investment climate. Mohamed Farid, former chairman of the board of directors of the Egyptian Stock Exchange, had said in May that the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and domestic inflation were among the reasons for the poor performance of the stock exchange.