Egypt Market Watch | May 21st 2015: Egypt equities surge by EGP 4.2bn

Cairo, Egypt (Capital Markets in Africa):-Egyptian equity market halt it positive momentum today. The market capitalization gave up EGP 4.2 billion compared to yesterday’s loss of EGP 2.4 billion to close at EGP 504.532 billion.

The benchmark index EGX30 rose by 1.8 percent or 161.58 points to close the day at 8,988.03 points (0.69 percent year-to-date performance). On the same note, the small and mid-cap index EGX70 gained 1.85 percent to settle at 480.58 points (-15.00 percent year-to-date return). Also,  the broader index EGX100 went up by 1.59 percent to 1,003.60 points (-7.97 percent year to date performance) and the EGX20 capped index surged by 2.67 percent to close at 9,443.94 points (-5.845 percent year-to-date).

From market activity perspective, Thursday’s turnover and volume amounted to EGP 752 million EGP 257.337 million respectively. National institutions were net buyers for EGP 116.4 million, while Arab and foreign institutions ended as net sellers for EGP 8.6 million and EGP 70.3 million respectively. National and foreign retail traders were net sellers for EGP 51.6 million and EGP 432,000 respectively, while Arab retail traders were net buyers for EGP 14.6 million. In addition, today’s trading session witnessed stronger activity, especially by national institutions, while retail traders headed for selling, which may be attributed to profit taking.

The market sentiment was positive today (measured as gainers/losers ratio), out of the 171 securities traded today, 121 gainers, 28 losers and 22 remained flat. On the gainers side, the top performance were Arab Cotton Limited Egypt advance by 9.86 percent to close the day at EGP 3.23 and Cairo Educational Services surged by 9.44 percent with closing price of EGP 10.43. Likewise, Delta Construction & Rebuilding rose by 7.92 percent to close at EGP 7.77 and Rubex Plastics gained 7.35 percent to trade at EGP 8.62.

On the losers side, topping the league were Al Arafa For Investment And Consultancies, Arab Aluminum, General Company For Land Reclamation,Development & Reconstru, Ismailia National Food Industries and Alexandria Containers and goods giving up 5.56 percent (to end price at US$ 0.17), 4.06 percent (to close at EGP 14.88), 3.97 percent (to settle at EGP 18.36, 3.68 percent (to trade at EGP 6.55) and 3.33 percent (with a closing price of EGP 204.06).

From the sector perspectives, all the sector indices ended in positive territory, apart from Chemicals sector went down 0.23 percent. While Travel & Leisure, Real Estate and Personal & Household sector indices went up by 5.22 percent 3.43 percent, 2.70 respectively to top the gainers’ chart.