Egypt stocks end week 0.89% lower on pound fresh fall in black market
Stocks in Egypt have extended the previous day’s drop lower as main index, EGX30 slid 0.89 percent, to 7436.87 points after gap between Egypt’s official and unofficial dollar rates hit its widest ever on Thursday.
The Egyptian pound further weakened early Thursday between 11.85-12.05 pounds per dollar early on Thursday, more than 35 percent above the central bank’s official rate of 8.78.
This comes a day after the central bank governor raised the option of a second devaluation of the country’s pound.
The central bank has been keeping the currency artificially fixed at 8.78 pounds since its devaluation in mid-March. Since the central bank’s comments to local media on July 3 about the fixed currency rate being a “mistake”, the pound has tumbled in the black market, and economists believe a further devaluation – possibly accompanied by further interest rate hikes – may be imminent.
Other indices; EGX50 EWI index also picked down 0.66 percent, at 1323.83 points; while EGX20 fell 0.78 percent, to 7756.38 points.
Mid- and small-cap index EGX70 dipped 0.01 percent, to 358.05 points. Price index, EGX100 also went down 0.10 percent, to 763.25 points.
Market Cap
Market capitalisation incurred losses worth around 2 billion Egyptian pounds ($225.1 million), to record 399.445 billion pounds during the closing session of Thursday.
Turnovers
The bourse’s trading volume reached 128.897 million securities, with turnovers, closing at 423.899 million pounds, exchanged through 15,874 transactions.
Also during the closing session, 156 listed securities have been traded in, 85 declined, 32 advanced; while 39 kept their previous levels.
Investors’ Activities
Non-Arab foreign investors were net sellers capturing 20.31 percent of the total market, with a net equity of 53.692 million pounds, excluding the deals.
On the contrary, local and Arab investors were net buyers controlling 73.76 and 5.93 percent respectively of the total markets, with a net equity of 48.771 million pounds and 4.920 million pounds, respectively, excluding the deals.
