Egypt main index hits 7-month low on bourse manipulation case

Egypt’s main stock index on Sunday closed at its lowest level since February 13, over a new court ruling issued on Saturday regarding the stock market manipulation case.

The Egyptian criminal court ordered on Saturday the arrest of ousted President Hosni Mubarak’s two sons, Alaa and Gamal, with seven other men including Yasser El Mallawany and Hassan Heikal, current and former board members respectively at Egyptian investment bank EFG-Hermes. Share of EFG-Hermes (HRHO.CA) sank by 8.6 percent, to close at 15.59 pounds.

The defendants were accused of violating stock market and central bank rules to make unlawful profits through dealing in shares of Al Watany Bank of Egypt. All those accused in the case, which began in 2012, collectively face charges of embezzling 2 billion Egyptian pounds ($115 million). The court’s next session is set for October 20.

Indices

Main index, EGX 30 plunged by 3.61 percent, closing at 14,756 points. The mid- and small-cap index, EGX 70 fell 1.23 percent to end trade at 734 points. Price index, EGX 100 dived 1.87 percent closing at 1,864 points.

Market Cap.

The market capitalisation of the Egyptian stock exchange incurred losses worth 24.5 billion Egyptian pounds ($1.4 billion), closing at 825.1 billion pounds on Sunday.

Turnovers

Trading volume amounted to around 252 million shares exchanged at a turnover of 1.7 billion pounds through 23,000 transactions.