As Draconian Anti-Protest Law Comes into Force, Egypt Shares End Week Lower

Battered by the recently-endorsed protest law and the heavy prison sentence for Islamist women, Egyptian stocks went on losing streak ending the week lower but with slight losses totaled EGP 35 million. The benchmark index closed below 6185 points on Thursday.

Egyptian authorities have recently adopted a controversial protest law which curbs the rights of citizens to assemble and protest peacefully.

Nearly two dozen Islamist women and girls, some as young as 15, were handed heavy prison sentences Wednesday for protesting in a court ruling that came a day after police beat and terrorized prominent female activists in a crackdown on secular demonstrators under a tough new anti-protest law.

The Egyptian Exchange indices remained on the red notes Thursday afternoon.

Egypt’s benchmark index EGX30 ended 0.34 per cent lower to 6184.11 pts, and the EGX20 also finished 0.23 per cent down to 7234.62 pts.    
Meanwhile, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 fell by 0.37 per cent to conclude at 518.59 pts. The price index EGX100 dropped by 0.16 per cent to close at 866.93 pts.  
The capital market has closed the week at EGP 402.978 billion.

Turnovers
Through the closing session of Thursday, the trading volume has reached 117.273 million securities. For the traded value, it hit EGP 290.006 million, exchanged through 18.805 thousand transactions.        

Also during the closing session, 185 listed securities have been traded in; 101 declined, 59 advanced; while 25 keeping their previous levels.

Investors’ Activity

The non-Arab foreigners and Arabs were net sellers triggering EGX’s closing losses for they seized 6.91% and 5.6% respectively, of the total market, with net equities of EGP 4.771 million and EGP 4.324 million, excluding the deals.

On the other hand, Egyptians were net buyers acquiring 87.49% of the total market, with a net equity of EGP 9.095 million, excluding the deals.