Egypt main index soars 14% in currency-devaluation week

Egypt’s main index EGX30 jumped 14 percent in a week, rising above its 200-day average for the first time since March 2015, backed by a partial devaluation of the local currency.

Earlier last Monday, Egypt’s central bank decided to devaluate the Egyptian pound to 8.85 per dollar at a special foreign exchange auction. It had previously set the rates at its regular and exceptional auctions at 7.73 per dollar as an average bid price.

The devaluation raised hopes that Egypt could attract more funds from abroad and begin resolving its long-time foreign exchange shortage.

Market Capitalisation:

Egypt’s stock market recorded weekly gains worth 35.9 billion Egyptian pounds ($4.1 billion), closing at 447.503 billion pounds during the closing session of Thursday versus 411.561 billion pounds at the end of a week earlier.

Indices

EGX30 closed at 7485.69 points on Thursday, versus 6563 points at the end of a week earlier.

The main gauge index registered its highest point on Thursday closing at 7485.69 points, whereas its lowest point recorded on Sunday at 6563.83 points.

In addition, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 also edged higher by 2.3 percent in a week closing at 362 points during Thursday’s session, compared to 354 points at the end of a week earlier.
Price index, EGX100 soared 6.7 percent finishing at 784 points during Thursday’s session, from 735 points at the end of a week earlier.

Turnovers
During the week, the trading volume hit around 2.6 billion securities, compared to 1.3 billion. For the traded value, it reached 6.2 billion pounds against 3.7 billion pounds a week earlier.

Monday was the heaviest trading volume for the past seven years.