Election fever grips Egypt’s stock market

With the Egyptian Exchange continuing to rally ahead of almost guaranteed presidential election outcomes, only one securities market in the Middle East and North Africa moved unmistakably higher in the year’s 21st week. Overall, two benchmark indices rose, three were flat and seven fell. All markets in the Gulf Coordination Council dropped, save the Omani bourse which was flat. Excluding the GCC and Egypt, there were no signs of any strong market direction in the remainder of MENA. As to the year-to-date picture, the Dubai market is still the solid ‘el supremo’ in terms of percentage gains but its rate of improvement receded to 47.5 percent by end of the week, followed by the Qatar Exchange at almost 31 percent and the EGX 30, which also leapt beyond 30 percent when compared with the start of 2014. Clueless in the Gulf Even as the actual inclusion of the selected stocks