Egypt’s stocks end week in red ahead of UN meeting on Ethiopia dam

Egypt’s stocks (EGX) indexes closed lower on Thursday, with the benchmark EGX 30 index falling 0.90 percent ahead of a UN Security Council meeting to discuss a dispute over the Ethiopian controversial dam. The main index closed in red to 10,185 points.

On Tuesday, Egypt received official notice from Ethiopia that it had begun filling the reservoir behind its giant hydropower dam, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), for a second year. Egypt and Sudan have denounced Ethiopia’s move. Egypt regards the step as a threat to regional stability.

Ethiopia has been largely intransigent against any efforts to engage outside help, rejecting a recent Egyptian-Sudanese proposal to involve the UN, the U.S., and the European Union as mediators.

Indices

EGX 70 EWI index of the leading smaller and mid cap enterprises (SME) inched down 0.93 percent to 2,320 points, while the fixed-weighted index, EGX 30 Capped dived 1.29 percent to 12,541 points. The all-embracing index, EGX 100 tumbled 0.96 percent to 3,253 points. In addition, the equal weights index, EGX 50 dropped 1.18 percent to 2,120 points.

Market Cap   

The country’s market capitalisation has on Thursday incurred losses worth 6.2 billion Egyptian pounds ($395.1 million), ending the trading at 657.781 billion pounds driven by foreign investors’ selloff.

Trading Aggregates            

Trading value has approximately reached around 3.2 billion pounds, while the trading volume has almost recorded 358.975 million securities executed 44,903 transactions.