Egypt’s stock market slightly up, main index falls after Juhayna head arrest

Egypt’s stock exchange’s (EGX) indexes closed mostly higher on Wednesday, however, the benchmark EGX 30 index tumbled 0.16 percent lower to 11,023 points following the arrest of chairman of the country’s largest dairy products and juices producer.

Juhayna Food Industries’ shares dived 6.43 percent at the end of Wednesday’s trading session after the company’s chairman Safwan Thabet was arrested pending an investigation.

The reasons behind the arrest were unknown to the company, Egypt’s largest dairy products and juices producer, said in statement to the bourse, which earlier suspended its shares. Juhayna will hold an emergency board meeting but continue to operate normally, the firm added.

The EGX 70 EWI index of the leading smaller and mid cap enterprises (SME) rose 0.63 percent to 2,082 points, while the fixed-weighted index, EGX 30 Capped fell 0.07 percent to 13,186 points. The all-embracing index, EGX 100 edged up 0.46 percent to 3,030 points. Meanwhile, the equal weights index, EGX 50 advanced 0.25 percent up to 2,213 points.

Market Cap   

Total market capitalisation has made gains worth 824 million Egyptian pounds ($52.6 million) to close at 641.723 billion pounds on Wednesday.

Trading Aggregates      

Also on Wednesday, the trading value has approximately reached 2.5 billion pounds, while the trading volume has almost recorded 598.4 million securities executed 52,117 transactions.