Egypt Stocks End Lower on Austerity Woes, Controversial Verdicts

Egypt’s stocks continue its downward trend, ending Wednesday’s session with losses totalling 4.2 billion Egyptian pounds driven by local and non-Arab investors’ selling pressures.

The sell-offs are driven by concerns over adopting new austerity measures following Egyptian President Sisi’s decision to donate half of his salary to Egypt’s economy, and reject the endorsement of the state’s budget for the coming fiscal year, that will start July 1st, as it would raise the country’s total domestic debt to EGP 2 trillion.

Another reason behind the sell-offs is the growing international outrage over the prison sentences handed down in Cairo to three Al-Jazeera journalists.

Accordingly, the main stock index, EGX30 further plunged below 8085 points.

The Egyptian Exchange’s indices were wavering in red notes during closing session of Wednesday.

Indices

Egypt’s benchmark index EGX30 ended 1.05 per cent lower to 8081.75 pts; while EGX20 finished 1.12 per cent down to 9765.42 pts.     
On the other hand, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 inched down by 0.92 per cent to end at 577.95 pts. The price index EGX100 dropped by 0.80 per cent to conclude at 1016.82 pts.  
Furthermore, the market capitalization recorded EGP 472.305 billion on Wednesday.

Turnovers above EGP 1 billion
Through the closing session of Wednesday, the trading volume has reached 189.173 million securities, with turnovers worth EGP 1.215 billion, exchanged through 20.801 thousand transactions.               
Also during the closing session, 187 listed securities have been traded in; 126 declined, 25 advanced; while 26 kept their previous levels.

Investors’ Activities

Egyptian and non-Arab foreign investors were net sellers seizing on Wednesday 75.82% and 5.42% respectively of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 382.995 million and EGP 34.401 million respectively, excluding the deals.

On the contrary, Arab investors were net buyers capturing 18.77% of the total market, with a net equity of EGP 417.796 million, excluding the deals.