Egypt Market Watch | May 13th 2015: Blood on Egypt’s equity markets Street

Cairo, Egypt (Capital Markets in Africa):- The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) indices collectively end in red on Wednesday while the market capitalization shed nearly EGP 6 billion to close at EGP 491.8 billion, pressured by the decline of blue chips.

The benchmark index EGX30 fell 1.7% or 147.91 points to 8,526.43 points. The small and mid-cap index EGX70 lost 2.33% to 453.85, while the broader EGX100 index slid 1.53% to 944.43 points. Likewise the EGX20 capped index plummeted by 2.28% to close at 8826.64 points.

The market sentiment was negative today (measured as advancers/decliners ratio) with 23 advancers and 130 decliners. Topping the price losers’ table were Nozha International Hospital, Telecom Egypt, Cairo Educational Services, and El Nasr For Manufacturing Agricultural Crops losing 8.27 percent (to settle at EGP 27.07), 7.78 percent (price settled at EGP 8.42), 7.74 percent (ended at EGP 9.53) and 7.28 percent (to close at EGP 10.04) respectively. On the other hand, Development & Engineering Consultants Egypt (gained 9.38 percent to settle at EGP 9.92), Tourism Urbanization (rose by 6.74 percent to end at EGP 9.19), Upper Egypt Flour Mills (advanced by 5.59 percent to close at EGP 69.50) , and Housing & Development Bank (advance by 3.38 percent to close at EGP 23.25).

The market activities, the turnover amounted to EGP 1.25 billion, while trade volume reached around 165 million shares sealed through 22,400 transactions. Foreign traders were buyers by EGP 38 million, while local and Arab traders were sellers by EGP 14.4 million and EGP 23.6 million, respectively. Meanwhile, retail traders were net buyers, while institutions were net sellers.

Analysts expect the stock market to continue the bearish and low trading activity tomorrow, as traders’ sentiment is hurt by concerns about capital gains tax.