Egypt stocks trade at one-year high on IMF hopes

Egyptian stocks ended traded at one-year high on Wednesday on optimism among local investors that a loan deal with the International Monetary Fund would boost the economy.

Main index, EGX30 climbed 1.64 percent, to a one-year high of 8104.57 points in rising turnover, confirming a break above major technical resistance on the April peak of 7,994 points.

Egypt said last week that it was negotiating with the IMF to secure a loan of $12 billion over three years. An IMF delegation is in Cairo while local investors were speculating about progress in the talks.

“Not only does the size of the loan matter, it is the fiscal and monetary measures that will have to be implemented soon after which will underpin investors’ sentiment,” Wafik Dawood, portfolio manager at Cairo-based Compass Capital, told Reuters.

Other indices; EGX50 EWI index also edged up 1.34 percent, to 1394.15 points; EGX20 added 1.49 percent, to 8402.37 points.

Mid- and small-cap index EGX70 fell 0.33 percent,
to 360.3 points. Price index, EGX100 traded higher 0.63 percent, to 790.62 points.

Market Cap

Market capitalisation incurred losses worth around 3.15 billion Egyptian pounds ($354.7 million), to record 412.795 billion pounds during the closing session of Wednesday.

Turnovers

The bourse’s trading volume reached 255.962 million securities, with turnovers, closing at 930.533 million pounds, exchanged through 23.205 transactions.

Also during the closing session, 167 listed securities have been traded in, 32 declined, 103 advanced; while 29 kept their previous levels.

Investors’ Activities

Local and Arab investors were net buyers controlling 82.68 and 8.29 percent respectively of the total markets, with a net equity of 7.468 million pounds and 17.310 million pounds, respectively, excluding the deals.

On the contrary, non-Arab foreign investors were net sellers capturing 9.04 percent of the total market, with a net equity of 24.779 million pounds, excluding the deals.