Egypt’s stock market began trading again today, the first time since January 27th, after the market opened, it dropped nearly 10% and trading was halted again for thirty minutes, reports Marketplace Morning Report. The Egypt exchange traded fund (ETF) continued trading in the U.S. during the two month markets hiatus.
Van Eck Market Vectors Egypt Index (NYSEArca: EGPT) has been trading on the U.S. exchange despite the fact that 24 of the underlying Egyptian stocks have not been trading. It is down 4.8%, since the Egyptian markets closed. Van Eck did suspend share creation of EGPT to help prevent the costs of creation activity from being passed on to current fund shareholders. Redemptions continued as normal. With the opening of the Egyptian market today, Van Eck began allowing traders to execute creation orders to produce new shares of EGPT. The ETF was down approximately 9% today. [Egypt ETF Trades At A Premium Over NAV.]
Jon C. Ogg for 24/7 Wall Street reports that it will be some time before true trading equilibrium can be found in the markets since Egypt’s has been closed for some time. The value of the equities found in EGPT and the Egyptian market has likely slid due to the GDP and growth that was hit hard during the malaise, and due to social unrest next door.
Tisha Guerrero contributed to this article.
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