OTHER NEWS - April 12, 1993

Egyptians Plan to Boost Financial Markets: Egypt, trying to inject life into its financial markets, said it would exempt investors from tax on stock market profits and abolish a ceiling on corporate bond interest rates. Local bankers said the new law, to take effect today, should bring Cairo’s long dormant stock market--once the sixth-largest in the world--back to life within months. “I’d say it will take about three months for new brokerages and investment houses to get organized, and then we’ll see them start drawing Egyptian firms into the market,” said Aladdin Saba, vice president of Kidder Peabody. More than 600 companies are listed on the Cairo exchange, but only about 25 trade actively after a 1960s wave of nationalizations and 30 years of socialist-style economics all but killed it off.