Egypt eyes joint bourse trading with Turkey

Egypt's bourse is studying an alliance with the lstanbul Stock Exchange that would allow investors in the two countries to trade on each other's markets. "A delegation from the Istanbul Stock Exchange will visit Egypt in December ... to discuss the means of joint trading between the Egyptian bourse and the Istanbul bourse," Mohamed Omran, the Egyptian exchange's chairman, told Reuters yesterday. Under the proposal, which follows a memorandum of understanding signed by the two exchanges in June, Turkish investors would be able to trade directly on the Egyptian bourse through Turkish brokerages and vice versa. Egyptian investors stung last year by the uprising that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak have been trying to improve their access to overseas markets. In June, the industry regulator, the Egyptian Financial Services Authority, told local brokerages and portfolio management firms they could no longer trade foreign securities. EFSA said at the time such trading exposed investors to risks that authorities were unable to monitor. Traders said the move may have been motivated by a desire to limit transfers of hard currency abroad. EFSA chairman Ashraf el-Sharkawy told Reuters a Turkish deal would not require changes to the Capital Market Law. The Istanbul Stock is on the eve of a major shift, with a draft code suggesting a restructuring and a merge with the gold exchange.