The Egyptian Stock Exchange (ESE) is one of the oldest in the world and comprises two exchanges, respectively the Alexandria Stock Exchange officially established in 1888, and Cairo, established in 1903.2 The ESE was the fifth most active stock exchange worldwide prior to the nationalization of industry and the adoption of central planning policies in the early 1950s. These policies led to a considerable reduction in stock exchange activity, and the market remained largely dormant throughout the 1980s. The ESE began operating again as a market for capital only in the 1990s, when market-oriented reforms brought financial institutions, operations and policies closer to internationally accepted principles and practices. These reforms increasingly recognized the development of equity markets and the financing of capital formation as key factors bearing upon the prospects for long-term growth