In this paper, we examine the effect of the political instability witnessed subsequent to the Arab spring revolutions on the stock markets’ performance. We analyse the reaction of the Egyptian stock exchange to eight major political events in the post-revolution period.

The paper differentiates between political instability arising from factors within the ordinary course of political transition and under the government’s control (endogenous) and that arising from factors which are not within the ordinary course of political transition and outside the government’s control (exogenous).

The paper concludes that political instability imposes a significant effect on the performance of the Egyptian Stock Exchange and that the impact of events not within the course of political transition is more significant than that of events within the ordinary course of political transition.