Stock market analysts predicted further decline in the Egyptian Exchange’s (EGX) benchmark index EGX-30, stating that it might decline to 5,600 points this week.
Last week, the EGX-30 plummeted by 15.38%, opening at 6,922.71 points on Sunday and closing at 5,858 points on the last trading day. A similar drop was recorded by the small and medium enterprise index, EXG-70, which opened at 384.8 points and closed at 336.41 points, a decline of 12.58%.
Financial investment expert Hussein El-Sherbiny said the EGX will continue to reflect the current deterioration in external capital markets.
Egyptian capital market will stabilise if external markets stabilise, he added.
“The economy is still unstable so there is nothing that will protect Egypt against the global trend,” El-Sherbiny said.
Mohamed Youssef, a financial analyst at Pioneers Holding, also predicted the decline wound result in a mark within the range of 5,800-5,600 points. Youssef mentioned that global stock markets have been experiencing a “violent decline” over the past 10 trading days.
He highlighted that the decline in oil prices is affecting Egypt’s main supporters, referring to Gulf countries.
“This will surely reflect on our capital market,” he added.
The broader index, the EGX-100, declined by 11.85%, dropping from 787.98 points to 694.6 points, while the EGX-20 decreased to 5,775.63, a 16.55% drop compared to the 6,921.41 at which it opened the trading week.
There were 11m transactions in the banking sector with a total value of EGP 338.9m. Meanwhile, there were 390.8m transactions in financial sectors, excluding banks, accounting for EGP 598m. During the past week, there were 31.8m transactions related to construction materials valued at EGP 43.6m, while shares for the food and beverages’ sector were valued at EGP 100.4m and totalled 20.7m traded shares.
Across the EGX, the total value of traded stocks amounted to EGP 4.5bn.
“The Egyptians controlled 86.16% of the value traded during the week,” a report issued by EGX read. “Non-Arab foreign investors accounted for 7.03% while Arab investors captured 6.81%, after excluding deals.”
The report added that “non-Arab foreigner investors were net sellers, with a net equity of EGP 159.24m”. It highlighted that Arab investors were also net sellers, with a net equity of EGP 66.33m.
“The total market capitalization of the listed stocks culminated at EGP 384bn at the end of this week,” EGX’s report said, referring to the past week’s trade. It added that this represented a 10% decrease throughout the week, which opened with a total market capitalisation at EGP 428.98bn.
