Uphill struggle for Cairo bourse chief

The Egyptian stock exchange reached another milestone in a tumultuous year last week after a permanent chairman was appointed in an attempt to generate some stability in the country's equities market.

But analysts and stock brokers say the new head of the bourse, Mohammed Abdel Gawad Omran, has a difficult task ahead of him as he inherits a multitude of problems largely driven by political instability in Egypt.

Mr Omran, who was the deputy chairman of the Egyptian Exchange under Maged Shawky from 2006 to last year, takes over from Mohamed Abdel Salam who has been the acting head since the bourse reopened at the end of March after an almost two-month closure during the revolution.

Despite caution on what lies ahead for Mr Omran, many have welcomed his appointment, especially because of his close links to the country's stock market.

Even so, he will have to contend with a host of difficulties regarding the operation of the stock market.

"He came in a very challenging period of time in Egypt both economically and politically, and the outside world doesn't help [with] the US downgrade and the European credit dilemma," said Hesham Saad, an investment director based in Cairo at Silk Invest.

Mr Saad said Mr Omran arrived at time of "paradigm shift" for the EGX 30, Cairo's benchmark index, but added confidence needed to be restored to stock market players who felt jaded by the transitional government's delay on reopening the market this year.

"It looked like the government was not really interested in the market and didn't care much about traders," he said.