FTSE Russell has decided to remove Egypt from its Watch List for a possible downgrade to frontier market status and to keep it classified as a Secondary Emerging market, as part of its September 2026 annual equity country classification review, published on October 6.

The decision follows the Egyptian market's fulfilment of FTSE's nine market quality criteria required to retain Secondary Emerging status, as well as the minimum requirements for investable market capitalization and the number of shares eligible for index inclusion.

Egypt was placed on the Watch List in September 2025 after the number of eligible Egyptian stocks in FTSE Russell's global indices fell and failed to meet the required minimum at the end of 2024 and the end of June 2025. Egypt's representation in the FTSE Emerging large- and mid-cap index had shrunk to a single stock, against a minimum of two eligible stocks.

According to the review, the government's economic reforms and initiatives launched by the Egyptian Exchange increased liquidity in the stock market, helping additional Egyptian stocks qualify for index inclusion in the March and September 2026 reviews.

As a result, the number of eligible Egyptian stocks reached three in the mid-cap category and three in the small-cap category, meeting the minimum size and number-of-securities requirements.

The decision to remove Egypt from the Watch List came after considering the views of FTSE Russell's Equity Country Classification Advisory Committee and Policy Advisory Board. It confirms that the Egyptian market retains its current classification and has overcome the reasons it was placed under watch for a possible downgrade.