Investors have their eyes on Egypt as civil unrest in the North African country has progressively escalated into a full blown crisis with international repercussions. Beyond the obvious and inexcusable human cost, the protests against Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year reign have hit the sovereign debt and equity markets, and are working their way through the oil and gold markets.
As Egypt’s youth battles the police’s rubber bullets and tear gas with Molotov cocktails and rocks, Egyptian equity markets have been taking an expected beating. The EGX30 equity index lost 10.5% on Thursday January 27 hitting its lowest level in 19 months. Providing easy access to Egyptian equities, the Market Vectors Egypt ETF (EGPT) has taken a dive as well hitting its lowest level ever on Friday 28 at less than $16. The fall comes amidst soaring volumes; MarketWatch reports that Thursday’s more than 330,000 shares traded in the morning mark its greatest volume ever by more than three times. The ETF’s largest holdings include Orascom Construction and Orascom Telecom, property of the wealthy Sawiris family, headed by Onsi Sawiris (founder of Oracom, ranked 307 in Forbes’ World Billionaires List) and his two sons, Nassef (ranked 127) and Naguib (374).
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