Egypt stocks climb to 14-month high

Egypt’s stock market traded higher on Monday after the country agreed a three-year, $12 billion loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund. Main index, EGX30 also surged 1.04 percent, to 8377.71 points.

Egypt’s stock market climbed to a multi-month high on Monday. Main index, EGX30 surged 1.23 percent, to a 14-month closing high of 8453.53 points.

The market’s index has advanced 2.0 percent since Egypt announced on Thursday that it had reached preliminary agreement on a three-year, $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Upon the IMF loan programme, the Egyptian government’s fiscal policy would be anchored to placing public debt on a clearly declining path toward more sustainable levels.

Over the IMF programme period, Egypt’s general government debt is expected to decline from about 98 percent in 15/16 to about 88 percent of GDP in the financial year 2018/19.

“the Egyptian government, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and the IMF team have reached a staff-level agreement on a three-year Extended Fund Facility (EFF) in the amount of SDR 8.5966 billion (422 percent of quota or about US$12 billion).” Chris Jarvis, Head of IMF Mission to Egypt, said in a statement.

Other indices; EGX50 EWI index rose 0.25 percent, to 1433.17 points; EGX20 gained 0.33 percent, to 8559.24 points.

Mid- and small-cap index EGX70 fell 0.25 percent, to 364.84 points. Price index, EGX100 edged up 0.07 percent, to 809.07 points.

Market Cap

Market capitalisation posted gains worth 2.26 billion Egyptian pounds ($254.5 million), to record 420.707 billion pounds during the closing session of Monday.

Turnovers doubled

The bourse’s trading volume reached 255.031 million securities, with turnovers, closing at 2.117 billion pounds, exchanged through 25,541 transactions.

Also during the closing session, 173 listed securities have been traded in, 67 declined, 58 advanced; while 47 kept their previous levels.

Investors’ Activities

Non-Arab foreign and Arab investors were net buyers controlling 11.21 and 2.95 percent respectively of the total markets, with a net equity of 6.513 million pounds and 13.771 million pounds, respectively, excluding the deals.

On the contrary, local investors were net sellers capturing 85.84 percent of the total market, with a net equity of 20.284 million pounds, excluding the deals.