Cairo stocks fall over central bank’s rate rise move

Egypt’s stock market slipped back into negative territory on Sunday weighed by the latest interest rate rise from the country’s central bank.

Main index EGX30 edged lower 1.11 percent, to 7337.97 points.

Earlier on Thursday, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) decided to raise interest rates by 100 basis points after core inflation rate hit a seven-year high in May. The bank raised the overnight deposit rate, the overnight lending rate and the rate of the CBE’s main operation to 11.75 percent, 12.75 percent and 12.25 percent respectively.

During Ramadan, the trading sessions start at 10 a.m. Cairo Local Time (8:00 GMT) and end at 1:30 p.m. (11:30 GMT), reducing trading hours by one hour.

Other indices; EGX50 EWI index plummeted 1.13 percent, to 1326.38 points; while EGX20 tumbled 1.58 percent, to 7457.35 points.

Mid- and small-cap index EGX70 lost 0.72 percent, to 357.69 points. Price index, EGX100 went down 0.72 percent, to 760.96 points.

Market Caps

Market capitalisation incurred losses worth 1.9 billion Egyptian pounds ($214 million), to record 397.209 billion pounds during the closing session of Sunday.

Turnovers

The bourse’s trading volume reached 121.247 million securities, with turnovers, closing at 412.786 million pounds, exchanged through 13,269 transactions.

Also during the closing session, 168 listed securities have been traded in, 97 declined, 28 advanced; while 39 kept their previous levels.

Investors’ Activities

Local investors were net sellers capturing 90.22 percent of the total market, with a net equity of 17.536 million pounds, excluding the deals.

On the contrary, non-Arab foreign and Arab investors were net buyers controlling 4.82 and 4.96 percent respectively of the total markets, with a net equity of 8.673 million pounds and 8.862 million pounds, respectively, excluding the deals.