Egypt’s Indices Gain EGP14 bln At Opening; Brace for New Phase

Egypt’s stock market has beaten a record in the opening session of Thursday, posting gains of EGP 14.35 billion powered by the Egyptian army’s declaration on Wednesday evening. The Egyptian Exchange’s indices soared and trading has been halted for 30 minutes for exceeding 5%.

Three hours after the 48-hour deadline passes, the Egyptian army chief Abdel Fatah al-Sissi announced in a statement aired at 8:30 p.m. Cairo time (06:30 GMT) a new interim administration headed by the country’s Constitutional Court Head who shall form a strong consensus government and supervise new elections to write down a new constitution and to choose a new head of state.

The commander of Egypt’s armed forces al-Sissi, stated that the army has given President Mohamed Morsi a 48-hour ultimatum in order to respond to the people’s will but the president refused stressing on the legitimacy and being in power. The army chief added that Morsi is no longer president and the chief of constitutional court would assume the task of interim president during a transitional period for Morsi failed to reach a solution with his opponents by the end of a Wednesday deadline.

Morsi fails to meet its ultimatum, as millions of protesters returned to the streets for the fourth straight day in their drive to force the Islamist president out of office.

Benchmark EGX30 jumped by 6.38% to 5288.1 p; while EGX20 soared by 10.57% to 5921.34 p.

On the other hand, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 pushed up by 5.88% to 409.07 p.  Price index EGX100 edged up by 5% to 711.56 p.

The capital market has reached EGP 347.114 billion during the opening session of Thursday, according to data compiled by Amwal Al Ghad English at 10:57 a.m. Cairo time (08:57 GMT).

Trading Volumes & Values

The trading volume has recorded 1.121 million securities worth EGP 4.274 million, exchanged through 430 thousand transactions during Thursday opening.

Also during the opening session, 129 listed securities have been traded in; 129 advanced; while 29 steadied.

Investors’ Activities

Local investors were celebrating the new interim phase in Egypt as they were net buyers seizing 93.1% of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 338.931 thousand excluding the deals.

Meanwhile, the non-Arab foreigners and Arabs were net sellers seizing 3.74% and 3.15% respectively, of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 289.287 thousand and EGP 49.644 thousand, excluding the deals.