Egypt stocks inch down ahead of Ramadan month

Egypt’s stock market ended lower Sunday and main index as EGX30 dropped 0.71 percent, to 7563.5 points, one day before the start of the holy month of Ramadan.

Trading in the stock markets tends to slow down during this time of year as trading hours are reduced.

Starting from Monday, the trading sessions will start at 10 a.m. Cairo Local Time (8:00 GMT) and end at 1:30 p.m. (11:30 GMT), reducing trading hours by one hour.

Egyptian Muslims fast from dawn to dusk every year during Ramadan, which is set to start this Monday.

Other indices; EGX50 EWI index fell 0.53 percent, to 1396.19 points; while EGX20 inched down 0.56 percent, to 7777.73 points.

Mid- and small-cap index EGX70 dipped 0.04 percent, to 374.15 points. Price index, EGX100 declined 0.37 percent, to 788.68 points.

Market Caps

Market capitalisation lost 2.5 billion Egyptian pounds ($281.35 million), to record 404.490 billion pounds during the closing session of Sunday.

Turnovers weak

The bourse’s trading volume hit 180.755 million securities, with turnovers, closing at 459.760 pounds, exchanged through 12,016 transactions.

Also during the closing session, 166 listed securities have been traded in, 87 declined, 25 advanced; while 48 kept their previous levels.

Investors’ Activities

Local and Arab investors were net sellers controlling 88.71 and 5.02 percent respectively of the total markets, with a net equity of 2.229 million pounds and 16.988 million pounds, respectively, excluding the deals.

On the contrary, non-Arab foreign investors were net buyers capturing 6.27 percent of the total market, with a net equity of 14.758 million pounds, excluding the deals.