Egypt’s stock market is expected to see an increase in the supply of securities in the coming period, supported by companies seeking temporary listings, particularly state-owned firms, while the exchange is targeting the completion of the phased launch of derivatives products, its new chairman Omar Radwan said.

Radwan was appointed chairman of the Egyptian Exchange for a one-year term on April 22.

Radwan made the remarks in a video interview with Zawya Arabic on Tuesday, on the sidelines of a financial literacy event held in cooperation with Egypt’s Ministry of Education, which the exchange has been running for some time.

Temporary listing

“There is a government IPO programme that is operating very well… we currently have a temporary listing period that you can deal with as a phase for increasing governance and preparing these companies for listing and trading,” Radwan said.

Temporary listing is a mechanism launched by Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority in 2022 to facilitate company offerings, under which companies must begin offering procedures or trading – in the case of direct listings – within six months from the date of the temporary listing.

The government announced this year its intention to temporarily list a number of companies during 2026, including 20 companies by the end of May – 12 of which have been temporarily listed so far – in addition to plans to temporarily list 10 companies from the petroleum sector, without specifying a timeframe.

According to Radwan, the exchange will continue to work on increasing investment and financial awareness in the private sector to attract companies to trading and to benefit from financing opportunities through the market.

The Egyptian Exchange has seen one initial public offering so far this year.

Derivatives

The exchange officially launched its derivatives market in March this year, starting with futures contracts on its main index, the EGX30, with contracts extending for three and six months.

Responding to a question on derivatives products expected to be launched during the current year, Radwan said: “We will work on this file, and we will roll it out gradually… there will be a sequential programme.”

According to a plan announced by the exchange this year, it intends to launch futures contracts on the EGX70 index, followed by futures  on individual stocks, then options on stocks and indices, in addition to launching a short-selling mechanism.

Click here to read the article in Arabic.