Egypt’s stock market plunges as CIB shares dive on Sunday

Egypt’s stock market (EGX) ended sharply lower on Sunday as shares of Commercial International Bank, the country’s biggest listed bank, plunged 6.91 percent following the resignation of its visionary leader chairman Hisham Ezz Al Arab resigned.

CIB, Egypt’s biggest listed bank, has massive foreign holdings and chairman Ezz al-Arab is among the country’s leading bankers and a well-known figure in Middle Eastern finance industry.

The resignation followed a circulation of letter from Egypt’s central bank on Thursday, informing CIB chief executive Hussein Abaza that the central bank had decided to dismiss Ezz al-Arab for alleged financial malpractice.

CIB afterwards held an urgent lengthy board meeting Thursday afternoon, resulting in the appointment of Sherif Samy – former chairman of the country’s financial regulatory authority – as the new non-executive chairman to perform corrective plan. The central bank approved Samy’s appointment and the board’s decisions.

The benchmark EGX 30 index sank 3.50 percent to 10,603 points.

The EGX 70 EWI index of the leading smaller and mid cap enterprises (SME) went down by 1.98 percent to 1,784 points, while the fixed-weighted index, EGX 30 Capped fell 1.56 percent to 12,555 points. The all-embracing index, EGX 100 dropped by 1.77 percent to 2,645 points. Meanwhile, the equal weights index, EGX 50 dived 2.17 percent to 1,946 points.

Market Cap   

Total market capitalisation has incurred losses worth 10.4 billion Egyptian pounds ($662.1 million) to close at 598.703 billion pounds on Sunday.

Trading Aggregates    

Also on Sunday, the trading value has approximately reached 2.5 billion pounds, while the trading volume has almost recorded 246,5 million securities executed 33,745 transactions.