The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) launched its new trading session this week, following its record performance in the last week, closing at 12,420 points—the highest increase since 2008 when it registered 12,000 points.
Technical analysts and executives said that this impressive performance makes it difficult to determine the trend of the main index this week, because the final week of the year usually witnesses minimal trading. Therefore, they predicted that the market may move slightly between 12,000 and 12,600 points during this week.
Last week witnessed a 9.66% increase in the EGX30, while the small- and medium-sized index rose by 2.22%, to close at the level of 462 points.
Mohamed El-Assar, head of the technical analysis department at the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) in North Africa and the Middle East, said that the EGX witnessed a new historical peak last week after it closed trading on Thursday at 12,420 points, compared to 12,000 points in 2008.
He added that the sharp rise of the EGX by 9.66% has made it difficult to predict the trend of the EGX.
However, he pointed out that the EGX30 index may move between 12,000 and 12,600 points this week, ruling out any record hikes since the last week of the year is characterised by a relative calm in trading.
In terms of the performance of shares, El-Assar expected that the stock of the Commercial International Bank (CIB) would move between the levels of EGP 70 and EGP 74.5 this week, after it closed last week’s trading near EGP 72.5.
He expected Hermes’ share to reach EGP 22-25.5, while the stock of Arab Cotton Ginning would test the level of EGP 4.25-5.10.
El-Assar also predicted that Sodic’s share would move between EGP 15.20 and EGP 16.60, while EKHO—a US-dollar stock—targets the level of $0.57-0.62.
Hany Helmy, chairperson of Al Shorouk Brokerage Securities Company, said that speculative operations that control the performance of stocks will support the prices, especially in event that the dollar continues to rise against the pound.
He pointed out that these speculations are supported by the higher trading volumes registering more than EGP 3bn per session, as well as attracting foreign investors to purchase stocks in the market.
The EGX recorded trading operations worth EGP 13.1bn, with an average trading of EGP 3.24bn per session. The weekly trading implemented 212,000 purchases and sales, with a total of 2.859 billion securities.
Foreign and Arab investors recorded net purchases worth EGP 517.38m and EGP 84.37m, respectively, in the last week, after excluding the value of deals.
