EGX Brand Guidelines: The Egyptian Exchange, From Alexandria in 1883 to the Smart Village

Two cities, one exchange.

The Egyptian Exchange, known as EGX, is two exchanges run as one. English Wikipedia describes it as comprising the exchanges of Cairo and Alexandria, both governed by the same board of directors and sharing the same trading, clearing and settlement systems; Arabic Wikipedia calls it one institution in two separate places.

Its history begins on the coast. English Wikipedia, drawing on the exchange’s own history page, traces its origins to 1883, when the first futures market was set up in Alexandria. By 1899 the Alexandria exchange had moved to new premises on Muhammad Ali Square, the area now called El Manshiyya, and in 1902 a Brokers’ Syndicate was formed and set the first rules for stock market activity.

Cairo followed. In 1903 a group of investors and brokers founded the Egyptian Company for Banking and Stock Exchange in Cairo as a limited liability company, choosing the former Ottoman Bank building on Maghrabi Street, now known as the Groppi building, as its headquarters. The Brokers’ Syndicate set the conditions of the market, from listing criteria and trading rules to the handling of disputes between brokers and complaints from the public. By 1908 a trading floor had opened opposite the French consulate, where investors could watch the market at work, and the first law governing stock exchanges was passed on 8 November 1909.

The exchange found its long-term home in 1928, when it moved to Sherifein Street in downtown Cairo. English Wikipedia says the building was financed by a company founded by brokers after the earlier company had wound up its operations. Egypt Independent reported in 2012 that the design was chosen through an international competition won by the French architect Raoul Brandon, who also designed Cairo’s Orosdi-Back department store, and linked the exchange’s standing at the time to the country’s cotton trade.

Dormancy, revival and the EGX indices.

The middle of the century was quiet. Arabic Wikipedia says the exchange was largely dormant between 1961 and 1992, under the centrally planned economy of those decades, and that it returned to activity in the 1990s, when the government began a programme of economic reform and privatisation.

The revived market built its benchmarks over the next two decades. The EGX 30 index, previously named the CASE 30, starts from 2 January 1998 at a base value of 1,000 points, and the exchange began disseminating it on 2 February 2003, English Wikipedia says. It covers the 30 companies with the highest liquidity and activity, is weighted by market capitalisation adjusted for free float, and requires a free float of at least 15 per cent; a version in US dollars has been published since 1 March 2009. Arabic Wikipedia adds the EGX 70, launched on 1 March 2009 for the next 70 most active companies, and the EGX 100, launched on 2 August 2009, which combines both groups. Both measure price changes without weighting by market value.

The plumbing changed too. At the start of 2005, Arabic Wikipedia says, the clearing company Misr for Central Clearing, Depository and Registry linked the Cairo and Alexandria exchanges, brokers, custodians and the market regulator in one automated system. On 25 October 2007 the exchange launched the Nile Stock Exchange, a market for listing and trading small and medium-sized companies, Arabic Wikipedia says. EGX is also a member of the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges.

Trading has also been suspended. English Wikipedia, citing The Wall Street Journal, says the exchange closed at the end of trading on 27 January 2011, during the upheaval of that year, and reopened on 23 March, after almost eight weeks.

Design and documentation.

Stock exchanges sell trust before they sell anything else, and their identities tend to show it. Many lean on a short set of letters rather than a full name, set in a sober sans or serif, and on a narrow, conservative palette: navies, deep reds and golds recur across exchange wordmarks, chosen to read as steady rather than fashionable. Few exchanges publish full brand guidelines, so most of what a designer can study is what they put on their own websites and in their own reports.

Photography does much of the work. Exchanges publish pictures of the places and rituals of a market: trading floors, where they still exist or once did, and listing ceremonies such as bell ringings and gong strikes, when a newly listed company’s executives mark its first day of trading. Where trading floors have closed and dealing has moved to screens, those ceremonies and the buildings themselves carry more of the visual story.

The websites follow a common pattern. A home page usually leads with an index ticker or chart and the day’s gainers and decliners; behind it sit listing pages that explain to companies how to raise capital, market-data pages, announcements, and rulebook or regulation pages that set out how the market is run. NZX in Wellington, for example, shows a chart of its headline index, upcoming listings and a section of rules and guidance on its own site.

Exchanges also speak to investors and shareholders. Many run investor-education pages, courses, videos or podcasts aimed at first-time savers, and an exchange that is itself a listed company publishes annual reports and investor news like any other issuer. This guide sets out what can be checked about each exchange: where it began, how it changed its structure, which markets and indices it runs, and how it presents itself today.

From Sherifein Street to the Smart Village.

In April 2012 the exchange moved its headquarters out of the city centre. Egypt Independent reported that officials cut the ribbon on the new building at the Smart Village on 12 April 2012: among the largest structures in that office park, about 45 minutes’ drive from central Cairo, and made up of two buildings joined by a skyway over a road. The paper noted that the old building still stands in the downtown pedestrian block that takes its name from it, known simply as “Boursa,” the exchange, an area of cafés that fills with students and young professionals in the evening. Officials had planned the move since 2002, according to the paper. Arabic Wikipedia lists the Smart Village and Alexandria as the exchange’s two locations today.

The short name EGX is used both for the exchange and in the names of its indices, EGX 30, EGX 70 and EGX 100. Its chairman is Omar Radwan, who took office in 2026, according to Arabic Wikipedia.

Listings are marked in public with a bell. On 2 November 2026, Arab Finance reported in an article carried by Zawya, trading began in the shares of Banque du Caire on the EGX, and Radwan spoke at the bell-ringing ceremony, calling the debut a milestone in the evolution of the Egyptian capital market.

For a design guide, EGX shows how an exchange can hold a 19th-century history, a 1928 trading hall and a 21st-century business park under one short name. Compare JSE, another African exchange with 19th-century roots, and Saudi Exchange, another exchange in the region. For this guide we use a deep Nile blue, a sandstone and an ochre with a serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep EGX’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.