Stocks incur $1bn after halting flights to Egypt

Egypt’s stock market slid Sunday incurring losses worth 8.5 billion Egyptian pounds (US$1.05 billion) on local and foreign selling pressures.

The market capitalisation has reached 443.807 billion pounds during the closing session of Sunday.

Severe blow

A number of European states decided to suspend their passenger flights to the Egyptian resort after the Russian airliner has crashed in Sinai Peninsula while heading to St. Petersburg from Sharm El Sheikh.

Moscow halted passenger flights to Egypt in the wake of the crash of a Russian jet in Egypt; a move that is considered to be a ‘severe blow’ to the country’s tourism industry, according to Mohamed Youssef, Adviser to Egyptian Minister of Tourism.

The tourist industry generates more than 11 percent of Egypt’s GDP.

Indices

Accordingly, Egypt’s benchmark index, EGX30 sagged by 2.58 percent to 7347.22 points.

The newly-launched EGX50 EWI index plummeted 3.48 percent to 1228.16 points.

EGX20 slumped by 3.51 percent to 7065.5 points.

In addition, the mid- and small-cap index EGX70 edged down by 3.43 percent to 383.69 points. The price index, EGX100 fall 2.67 percent to 829.69 points.

Turnovers low

On Sunday, the bourse’s trading volume has recorded 311.126 million securities, with turnovers closed at EGP 652.802 million, exchanged through 21,507 thousand transactions.

Also during the closing session, 185 listed securities have been traded in; 141 declined, 12 advanced; while 27 kept their previous levels.

Investors’ Activities

Egyptian and non-Arab investors were net sellers on Sunday seizing 84.17% and 9.49% respectively of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 12.202 million and EGP 24.351 million, respectively, excluding the deals.

On the contrary, the Arab investors were net buyers getting 6.33% of the total market, with a net equity of EGP 36.553 million, excluding the deals.