Pre-Trading Thoughts

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will soon disburse a USD300 million tranche from its USD733 million loan to finance the construction of the first phase of Cairo Metro Line 4. The Ministry of Electricity and Energy and the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources announced that the duration of power cuts nationwide will be extended by one hour on Sunday and Monday.The USD rose above 48 EGP for the first time since April, jumping by around EGP0.70 yesterday. The rate settled at EGP48.20 by the end of the day at the Central Bank of Egypt.The value of “electronic payment and collection” services increased by 19% during 11MFY2023/24, recording about EGP2.5 trillion.Egypt’s natural gas production decreased by 5% during last April, reaching 4.26 billion cubic meters. At the same time, gas consumption in Egypt decreased by 4.5% during April, reaching 5.02 billion cubic meters.The court rejected the lawsuit filed by EGTS regarding the 20.0 million sqm third phase Sahl Hasheesh land plot. Beltone Holding is revamping its Beltone Trading App into an investment fund platform with a new fully digital onboarding process and is planning to apply for approval from the FRA in July. The company has also applied for new low-, medium-, and high-risk funds, ranging from fixed-income to equity funds. The company has also applied with the FRA for a new fund tracking the newly introduced EGX33 Shariah index.QNB Al Ahli, the Egyptian unit of Qatar National Bank (QNB Group), will be rebranding to QNB.Arkan Palm and Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) will establish a Holiday Inn Express hotel in Arkan Palm’s 205 project in West Cairo. Weekly Commodities Update |   | Last Price | WoW Change, % | Brent, USD/bbl | 85.2 | 3.2% | Diesel-HSFO Spread, USD/ton | 313 | 4.1% | Egypt Urea, USD/ton | 338 | -4.9% | Polyethylene, USD/ton | 1,040 | 0.0% | Polypropylene, USD/ton | 1,000 | 0.5% | Iron Ore 65%, USD/ton | 126 | -1.1% | Steel/Iron Ore Spreads, USD/ton | 389 | 1.0% | LME Copper Cash Price, USD/ton | 9,548 | -0.7% | LME Aluminum Cash Price, USD/ton | 2,465 | 0.1% | Egyptia Retail Cement, EGP/ton | 2,102 | 3.0% | Steam Coal FOB Newcastle Australia, USD/ton | 132 | -0.8% | SMP, USD/MT | 2,766 | 1.6% | Last price may vary week over week in some indices due to time difference