Egypt stocks tumble 1.6% on Saudi crude product halt
Egypt’s stock market further plunged on Tuesday after news that Saudi Arabia had suspended oil product supplies to the country this month.
Main index, EGX30 dropped 1.57 percent, to 8232.77 points.
Saudi Aramco informed the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, Egypt’s state oil company, in early October that it would halt the supply of refined oil products to Egypt, a government official told Reuters on Monday.
“The market reacted negatively to the news about Aramco stopping its supply of petroleum products, and this, coupled with the fact that the index failed to break the resistance barrier of 8,500 points, led to profit-taking,” said Ibrahim Nimr, head of technical analysis at Cairo-based Naeem Brokerage.
Wafik Dawood, portfolio manager at Cairo’s Compass Capital, said of Saudi Aramco’s decision: “The uncertainty about whether this is a one-off event or will be the new status quo is what is creating volatility in the market.”
Other indices; EGX50 EWI index sank 1.95 percent, to 1302.42 points; EGX20 decreased 1.79 percent, to 8074.88 points.
Mid- and small-cap index EGX70 sagged 1.20 percent, to 342.98 points. Price index, EGX100 edged down 0.92 percent, to 791.08 points.
Market Cap
Market capitalisation incurred losses worth 5.7 billion Egyptian pounds ($642.1 million), to record 410.225 billion pounds during the closing session of Tuesday.
Turnovers remain modest
The bourse’s trading volume reached 168.687 million securities, with turnovers, closing at 752.071 million pounds, exchanged through 17,091 transactions.
Also during the closing session, 166 listed securities have been traded in, 109 declined, 12 advanced; while 44 kept their previous levels.
Investors’ Activities
Egyptian and non-Arab foreign investors remained net sellers controlling 46.39 and 33.68 percent respectively of the total markets, with a net equity of 45.526 million pounds and 2.965 million pounds, respectively, excluding the deals.
On the contrary, Arab investors were net buyers capturing 19.93 percent of the total market, with a net equity of 48.491 million pounds, excluding the deals.
