MARKET WATCH — Small caps still in vogue
STOCK ANALYSIS: National Printing (NAPR)
Written end of September 2025 for Business Monthly - October 2025 Issue
MARKET WATCH
The period from Aug. 15 to Sep. 15 saw the performance divergence between the market’s two main indices come back again. The EGX30 fell 1.2%, while the EGX70 rose 2.5%. Hence so far into the year, the latter (up 33.5% year-to-date) extended its outperformance over the former (up 18.2% year-to-date) to 15.2 percentage points. In other words, it was another small-cap story taking hold in the market.
Such performance was led in part by an improved economic picture, supported by reform momentum, gradual stabilization of inflation, and favorable interest rate expectations. The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) resumed its easing monetary cycle by cutting rates by 2 percentage points, extending its year-to-date cuts to 5.25 percentage points, down to overnight deposit and lending rates of 22% and 23%, respectively.
However, certain stocks all within the same sector made it to the limelight during the period. Indeed, stocks within the land reclamation industry delivered some gigantic performance, led by El Arabia for Land Reclamation (EALR, up 212%) and General Company for Land Reclamation (AALR, up 125%). Also, Arab Development & Real Estate Investment (ADRI, up 56%) rose in tandem. Such euphoria was triggered by news of Egypt’s Future for Sustainable Development Agency acquiring the whole 89.66% stake owned by the Holding Company for Land Reclamation in EALR. Other than that, the company did not share any material development to justify such performance. Such a change in ownership was said to be part of a restructuring process.
Elsewhere, Nile Pharmaceuticals (NIPH, up 70.5%), which was going through an EGP200-million capital increase, saw its stock rise quickly as the company’s 2024/25 earnings rose 39% year-on-year. The first round of the capital increase was almost fully covered (98.7%), with the second round set to take place afterwards. Also within the same health care sector, the performance of Macro Group (MCRO, up 52%) was driven in part by the company’s strong recovery, turning a net loss into a net profit in the first half of the year with earnings more than doubling quarter-on-quarter. Also, the company is going through with its proposed EGP570-million capital increase, which is earmarked to improve efficiency of its factory and repay some shareholder loans, among other purposes.
Even stocks that seldom trade saw their stocks rise on recent news. For instance, Golden Pyramids Plaza (GPPL, up 51%) rose following news of a partnership between its majority-owned subsidiary Golden Coast for Hotels & Touristic Villages and Sky Tower for Real Estate Development, a subsidiary of Emaar Misr for Development (EMFD, down 4%), to develop an EGP900-billion integrated touristic project on the Red Sea.
At the end of the day, what matters the most is the continuation of reform momentum with inflation kept under control.
STOCK ANALYSIS
National Printing (NAPR)
With an IPO price of EGP21.25 a share, National Printing (NAPR) began trading on Aug. 5 and hit an intraday high of EGP23.69 before ending its first trading day up 9.4%. The public offering was covered 23.6 times, while the private placement was fully covered by one cornerstone investor. Since then, the stock trended lower to end the period at EGP21.99, up only 3.5% off its IPO price. The stock traded during the period between a high of EGP25.75 on Aug. 27 and a low of EGP21.51 recorded on Sep. 14, with 3.4 million shares changing hands worth some EGP77 million.
