Stocks in Egypt fall 1% for April despite IPOs

Egypt’s stock market ended April with heavy monthly losses despite several initial public offerings it witnessed during the month.

Market capitalisation incurred losses worth 6 billion Egyptian pounds ($331.1 million), closing at 648.717 billion pounds last Thursday, 1 percent lower from 654.825 billion pounds at the end of a month earlier.

On April 11, shares of MM Group for Industry and International Trade have started trading on the Egyptian bourse. The company set a share price of 5.96 pounds ($0.33) in this week’s private and public share offerings, and has raised 708 million pounds from selling 30 percent of its shares. The initial public offering for MM Group has been covered around 19.27 times.

MM Group distributes several international brands in Egypt including Vodafone, Samsung Electronics, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Ferrari.

Later, Shares in Raya Contact Center Co has started trading on April 27 after the company sold a 49 percent stake to investors. The initial public offering of Raya Contact Center was covered 10.36 times.

Raya Contact Center, which was founded in 2001 and provides outsourcing services to Europe and the Middle East, closed its private placement on April 12 after it was oversubscribed four times.

Indices:

Main stock index, EGX 30 encountered a monthly drop of 4.32 percent, ending the month at 12,434 points.

Meanwhile, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX 70 posted a monthly advance of 2.42 percent, finishing the month at 583 points.  The price index, EGX 100 also rose 0.95 percent for April, closing at 1,340 points.

Turnovers
During April, the trading volume reached 3.937 million securities, compared to 5.940 million in March. For the traded value, it recorded 21.7 billion pounds against 33.2 billion pounds a month earlier.

Trade volumes were affected by the Palm Sunday attacks, as well as national holidays for Easter and Sinai Liberation.