KEY THEMES
As this 4-day week draws to a close, we have one major macro event to look forward to, which is the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting tomorrow to review EGP interest rates. Our view is for the MPC to keep rates on hold, the rationale for which we will detail in tomorrow’s PRIMETime. Meanwhile, as companies start posting their Q1 2021 results (or 9M 2020/21 for those companies that have their financial years end in June), we believe investors should sit back and reconsider some market anomalies. Over the last three months, one such anomaly that we see is the divergence between aluminum prices (+19%) and Egypt Aluminum [EGAL] (-6.5%), outperforming by 25 percentage points. EGAL just reported its 9M 2020/21 ended March, showing 46% higher revenues and hence 67% lower net losses. Even when looking back versus a year go, EGAL is still lagging behind by a full 25 percentage points, albeit with a positive performance (+33% vs. aluminum’s +58%).