Egypt’s indexes fall to multi-year lows as protests weigh in

Egypt’s main index EGX 30 plunged on Sunday to multi-year intraday lows after small yet rare protests against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, broke out over the weekend.

Hundreds of people on Friday protested in central Cairo and several other Egyptian cities against Egyptian president, responding to an online call for a demonstration against government corruption.

Protests have become very rare in Egypt since a broad crackdown on dissent under Sisi, who took power after the overthrow of the former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 following mass protests against his rule.

“It is definitely due to the small escalation over the weekend, which is making investors cautious,” said Ashraf Akhnoukh, director at Arqaam Capital in Cairo, told Reuters.

The sellers were mostly locals and Arab investors as foreign investors were not trading on a Sunday, he added.

Indexes

The benchmark index fell 5.3 percent in its biggest single-day fall since mid-2016 as all its stocks slipped into the red. It close at 13,958 points.

The broad ranged EGX 100 index sank 5.7 percent, the most since November 2012, with 95 of 100 stocks dropping, causing trading to be suspended due to a 5 percent swing for the first time since 2016.

Sustainability index S&P/EGX ESG also dived 7.38 percent to 2,026.29 points.

The fixed-weighted index EGX 30 Capped plummeted 6.06 percent to 16,804.3 points.

Meanwhile, the EGX70 index dropped 5.66 percent to 509.02 points.

Market Cap

Market capitalisation registered its biggest ever intraday losses of 35.7 billion Egyptian pounds ($2.2 billion), closing at 702.302 billion pounds on Sunday.