Analyst Briefing
Bank of America moved Egypt to the top of its emerging‑markets screen on Thursday, highlighting stronger earnings, tighter valuations and robust price momentum, while keeping Turkey and South Africa in the top‑three positions. The bank’s quantitative screening indicates that Egypt now registers the highest return on equity across all emerging markets, with Peru and the United Arab Emirates trailing. Turkey continues to exhibit the world’s highest equity risk premium, followed by Korea, Greece and the UAE.
In BofA’s top‑20 stock screen, eleven South African equities are represented across seven markets, with the materials and financials sectors forming the bulk of the selections. The three highest‑ranked individual stocks are Northam Platinum, Tupras and Momentum Group.
The bank projects three consecutive Federal Reserve rate hikes beginning in September, stating that this monetary tightening more than offsets any upside from recent US‑Iran developments and lower oil prices. Accordingly, BofA forecasts the US dollar to peak in the third quarter of 2026.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets occupy the bottom of the emerging‑markets ranking. Among the remaining markets, Poland is the most expensive on an EV/Sales and price‑to‑book basis, Czechia leads on price‑to‑earnings multiples, and Greece tops the EV/EBITDA metric.