EGX’s long-awaited shariah-compliant index to go live today -report

The shariah index goes live: The EGX will today launch Egypt’s maiden shariah-compliant index after getting the approval from the Financial Regulatory Authority's main shariah supervisory committee, Al Borsa reports. The index will be launched in collaboration with Standard & Poor’s.

Remember: EGX head Ahmed El Sheikh said last month that the bourse has put together a committee to launch the index this quarter with 30 to 50 listed companies. The bourse has been at work hand-picking EGX-listed companies whose activities are sharia compliant, El Sheikh added.

Out with the old, in with the new: The new shariah-compliant index is being launched to replace the EGX50, which was terminated by the bourse last year due to inactivity.

CI CAPITAL WANTS IN ON THE NEW FUND-

The race to be the first: State-owned investment bank CI Capital’s asset management arm CI Capital Asset Management wants to launch “the country’s first” fund investing in shariah-compliant stocks when the EGX launches its maiden sharia-compliant index, it said in a statement (pdf) yesterday.

They already have competition: CI Capital’s announcement comes shortly after asset manager Azimut also said it wants to launch a fund investing in shariah-compliant stock to go live when the EGX launches its index.

This would be CI Capital’s second fund tracking an EGX index: CI Capital Asset Management launched an equity fund — dubbed Misr Equity — tracking the EGX30 Capped index back in 2022.