Cairo – Mubasher: The Egyptian Financial Regulatory Authority’s (FRA) chairman Mohamed Omran has approved granting Arqaam Securities Brokerage a licence to conduct short-selling transactions.

This step came as part of efforts to raise the value and volume of trading in the Egyptian market and boost liquidity in the Egyptian Exchange (EGX), FRA said in a statement on Wednesday.

Short selling is the sale of a security that is not owned by the seller, or that the seller has borrowed, to be bought back at a lower price to make a profit. The profit equals the difference between the sale price and the purchase price, minus the interest incurred for borrowing the security.

Egypt’s regulator expected the technology infrastructure required for implementing this mechanism to be executed in the near future.