Pre-Trading Thoughts

EGX30 saw its biggest drop in three years yesterday as the fallout from the US banking crisis continued to send tremors through global financial markets.Credit Suisse will borrow as much as USD54 billion from the Swiss central bank and will buy back some of its debt in a bid to improve liquidity and curb investors’ fears. The government will start marketing state companies to investors in April, and it could add eight more companies to the list.The SFE plans to offer a 10-20% stake in Misr Insurance Holding to strategic investors.The Tourism Ministry is expecting Egypt to receive a record 15 million tourists in 2023, up 28% from 2022.The President announced that Egypt will add 3.5 million feddans to agriculture land by mid to end 2024.Mopco 4Q22 net profit reached EGP2.2 billion (+66% QoQ, +6% YoY), bringing FY22 net profit to EGP7.3 billion, up 51% YoY. The President inaugurated yesterday a new nitrogenous fertilizer complex in Ain Sokhna. The complex currently includes six fertilizer factories with an annual production capacity of 1.7 million tons.Oil prices plunged by nearly 5% on Wednesday to settle at USD73.69/bbl.The government yesterday signed two agreements worth USD1.6 billion with two international consortiums to develop new container terminals at the Ain Sokhna and Dekheila ports.Central Bank of Egypt data revealed an increase in bank assets to EGP11.4 trillion by the end of 2022, with bank capital recording EGP303.03 billion, while reserves amounted to EGP437.13 billion, and provisions recorded EGP256.09 billion. Hilton plans to expand its portfolio of properties in Egypt over the next three-five years to 27 properties from a current 14.