Shares in Egypt tumble 0.4% as dollar crisis bites

Egypt’s stock market traded lower on Tuesday; main index, EGX30 fell 0.42 percent, to 7596.96 points.

Sentiment remains depressed by slow economic growth and the country’s dollar shortage. The Egyptian arm of Emirates NBD said it was suspending use of debit and credit cards abroad to keep hard currency inside the bank.

Other indices; EGX50 EWI index also dropped 0.61 percent, at 1353.18 points; while EGX20 lost 0.38 percent, to 7981.84 points.

Mid- and small-cap index EGX70 rose 0.06 percent, to 359.6 points. Price index, EGX100 edged down 0.12 percent, to 768.44 points.

Market Caps

Market capitalisation incurred losses worth 793 million Egyptian pounds ($89.3 million), to record 405.439 billion pounds during the closing session of Tuesday.

Turnovers

The bourse’s trading volume reached 200.237 million securities, with turnovers, closing at 671.245 million pounds, exchanged through 16,311 transactions.

Also during the closing session, 172 listed securities have been traded in, 83 declined, 50 advanced; while 37 kept their previous levels.

Investors’ Activities

Local and non-Arab investors were net buyers controlling 79.29 and 14.53 percent respectively of the total markets, with a net equity of 14.251 million pounds and 286,949 pounds, respectively, excluding the deals.

On the contrary, Arab foreign investors were net sellers capturing 6.17 percent of the total market, with a net equity of 14.638 million pounds, excluding the deals.