Egypt’s EGX Launches FIX with Fidessa

EGX FIX HUB network will enable international investors to trade Egyptian securities with ease through a FIX gateway. Accordingly, this will reflect positively on the Egyptian market liquidity without violating capital market rules. It is worth mentioning that few years ago EGX has started its FIX HUB project with the aim of linking to London Stock Exchange (LSE).

EGX signed contracts with two firms i.e. FIDESSA and ULLINK. FIDESSA is a network having about 175 stock markets in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, America and over 3600 of partners in the financial services field with nearly 800 Billion US Dollars of executed buy and sell orders inside that network. ULLINK network serves about 131 financial institutions in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe and South and East Asia.

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The Egyptian Pound is currently trading at EGP 6.06 against the greenback.

Dr. Mohamed Omran, EGX chairman, confirmed that EGX continuously thrives to support and improve the capital market products. He added that the FIX HUB will enable member firms, investors, portfolio managers in different markets to trade via secured communication network that is not expensive and thus will allow member firms to attract a large number of Arab and foreign investors. He concluded that this initiative is the first of its kind in the MENA region, which will not only increase the depth of liquidity on EGX and enable it to provide a value-added service to its members, it also reflects EGX vision to meet the challenges of an increasingly sophisticated and demanding global investment community.”

Egypt, the most populous country in the MENA region has an established financial markets structure. Egyptian companies have been growing with developments in the GCC as the primary driver.

Egyptian firms have been exploring international share issues since 2000. The London Stock exchange is home to over 12 major Egyptian companies trading as GDR’s. The main GDR’s are;

• COMMERCIAL INTERNATIONAL BANK,
• EFG-HERMES HOLDING,
• ORASCOM CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES,
• PALM HILLS DEVELOPMENTS,

Forex has been slow to hit the streets of Cairo, the central bank has been discouraging retail investors however no formal legislation has been applied. Education provider Emoney power was aggressively marketing FX to investors in the mid 2000’s however due to sever losses investors shied away. With recent changes in neighbouring Jordan many FX brokers and professionals have set up shop in Egypt either as education providers or IB’s.