EFSA head Ashraf El-Sharqawy (Photo: Al-Ahram)
Same-day trading will return to the Egyptian Stock Exchange in a few days, head of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) was reported as saying by the Al-Ahram Arabic newspaper.
Same-day trading or T+0 refers to a trading system where settlement takes place in the same session. In other words, if a share is sold, the cash and stock exchanges ownership on the same day.
Egypt's Bourse halted same day T+0 trading following the January uprising in 2011 as uncertainty swept the market.
Trading settlement in Egypt's stock market is currently undertaken using a T+1 system for government bonds and a T+2 system for all other securities.
On Sunday, the EFSA announced the rules of same-day trading, which gave brokerage firms a three-month grace period to adjust their trading mechanisms to fit the new system.
In September, El-Sharqawy told the press that same-day trading would commence in Egypt in October, but the decision was delayed for undisclosed reasons.
Bourse Chairman Mohamed Omran also said in September that pre-session 'exploratory trading', used to determine opening stock prices, would be reinstated by the end of the year. Afterwards, the price fluctuation caps, currently set at 10 per cent up or down, will be removed.
The practice of exploratory trading was cancelled in March of 2011, when the exchange reopened after seven weeks of closure following the uprising.
Egypt's exchange has seen a 47 per cent rise since the start of 2012, with its benchmark EGX30 index reaching its highest levels since January of last year.
Short link: