As the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced its decision to remove the cap of dollar deposits and withdrawals for Egyptians, the positive news minimally reflected on the Egyptian Exchange’s benchmark index EGX-30, inching up by just 0.52%.
EGX-30 closed at 6,372.64 points compared to 6,339.76 points the preceding day.
Broader index EGX-100 declined by 0.14% however to 730.15 points. The previous day, EGX-100 closed at 731.2 points. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) index EGX-70 inched down by 0.01% to 355.67 points.
The trading day closed with 64 gainers, 66 decliners, and 36 unchanged.
Stock market analysts expected that narrow-range fluctuation of EGX to continue throughout this week, ranging between high 5,000s and low 6,000s.
“The past two or three weeks witnessed no major fluctuations,” Head of the Technical Analysis Department at Naeem Brokerage Ibrahim El-Nemr previously told Daily News Egypt.
Investors are still anticipating positive news that would encourage them to purchase stocks, El-Nemr said.
Over the past month, instability in the global and local stock markets pushed foreign investors to continue selling their shares in the EGX for the second consecutive month, registering EGP 195.87m in net sales for transactions. This brought the total of shares sold by foreign investors to EGP 744.54m since the beginning of 2016.
Egyptians sold their shares while Arabs and foreigners bought them, EGX reported. Institutions were inclined to buy stocks while individuals sold theirs.
In February, Institutions accounted for 63.28% of the value traded, while the remaining 36.72% were for the individuals.
