EGX 30 Opens 3.58% Higher As President Annuls Most of Contested Decree

As Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi early Sunday annulled most of an extraordinary Nov. 22 controversial decree, the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) has posted on Sunday’s opening session early gains of EGP 4.1 billion as the capital market has amounted to EGP 345.388 billion, according to data compiled by Amwal Al Ghad at 10:55 a.m. Cairo time (08:55 GMT).

The EGX indices opened in green amid the president’s last decrees.

The main index, EGX30 jumped by 3.58% to 5011.73 p. EGX20 climbed by 3.52% to 5746.93 p.

Meanwhile, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 pushed up by 2.18% to 436.93 p.  Price index EGX100 rose by 2.82% to 736.41 p.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi early Sunday annulled most of an extraordinary Nov. 22 decree that gave him near-absolute power and has plunged this nation into a deeply divisive political crisis.

The opening session was after trading in 85 listed securities; 1 declined; while 33 keeping their previous levels.

The non non-Arab foreigners and Arabs’ opening selling transactions have backed EGX’s opening gains as they were net buyers 3.59% and 6.3% respectively, of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 208.795 thousand and EGP 361.028 thousand excluding the deals.

On the other hand, Egyptians were net sellers seizing 90.11% of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 569.823 thousand excluding the deals.

The decree, which Morsi had said was necessary to move Egypt’s democratic transition forward, will be replaced by a modified version of the original declaration. But the most controversial article, which placed all of Morsi’s actions beyond judicial review, is gone, said Mohammad Salim al-Awa, spokesman for a national political dialogue held Saturday.

That satisfies a key demand of opposition leaders, though the article has already served its purpose for Morsi. He had used it to protect an Islamist-dominated constitution-writing panel from dissolution by Egypt’s highest court, enabling the panel to pass a controversial draft charter. And a Dec. 15 referendum that opposition forces had wanted canceled will go ahead as planned, Awa said.

All but a handful of opposition figures had boycotted the national dialogue, saying that if the referendum was going ahead, there was nothing to talk about.