EGX 30 Opens Below 5565 Pts On Fifth Day Of Unrest

The Egyptian Exchange has opened Tuesday’s sessions posting losses of nearly EGP 2 billion driven by early foreign selling pressures amid the country’s current unrest.  The capital market has amounted to EGP 373.049 billion during Monday’s opening session, according to data compiled by Amwal Al Ghad at 11:05 a.m. Cairo time (09:05 GMT).

The EGX indices opened in red.

The main index, EGX30 inched down by 0.85% to 5560.27 p. EGX20 fell by 0.94% to 6373.87 p.

Meanwhile, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 went down by 0.60% to 453.97 p.  Price index EGX100 dropped by 0.57% to 777.1 p.

This was after trading in 98 listed securities; 70 declined, 3 advanced; while 25 keeping their previous levels.

During the opening session, the trading volume has reached 16.220 million securities worth EGP 28.991 million, exchanged 1.622 thousand transactions.

Late Sunday, the Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi declared a state of emergency and nighttime curfew across three major cities Sunday after violence raged for a third straight day, leaving nearly 50 dead and hundreds injured nationwide.

In a televised address Sunday night, the president said the state of emergency, which allows security forces to arrest and detain at will, would cover Port Said, Suez and Ismailia for 30 days.

“The protection of the nation is the responsibility of everyone. We will confront any threat to its security with force and firmness within the shadow of the state of the law,” Morsi said.

The deployment Saturday of government troops to the coastal cities of Port Said and Suez, which have seen some of the worst violence, failed to quell a public backlash against a court verdict and raised doubts about whether Morsi’s embattled government could contain the situation.

The EGX’s opening gains were driven by the non-Arab foreigners and Arabs’ selling pressures as they were net sellers seizing 15.05% and 5.61% respectively, of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 655.365 thousand and EGP 103.851 thousand  excluding the deals.

Meanwhile, Egyptians were net buyers seizing 79.35% of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 759.216 thousand excluding the deals.