File Photo: Traders work at the Egyptian stock exchange in Cairo, Egypt, August 18, 2013 (Reuters)
Egypt’s stocks ended Monday’s trading down, as the main index followed the market downturn worldwide led by China and amid political tensions in the region, says an analyst.
Benchmark EGX30 dipped 1.5 percent to register 6,982 points in a session that saw Arab investors as only net-sellers to the tune of LE54.7 million.
“The diplomatic tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran have taken a toll on Mideast markets, dragging them down,” said Eissa Fathi the vice head of the Securities Division at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce.
Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday in response to the storming of its embassy in Tehran a day after the Saudis executed a prominent Shia cleric.
Fathi added that the contraction of Chinese factory activity for the 10th month in row drove down Shanghai stocks by 7 percent, which adversely affected the rest of world markets.
The Saudi index slipped 2.3 percent, while the Dubai and Abu Dhabi indices fell 1.6 percent and 1.3 percent respectively.
According to Reuters, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 2.5 percent and the euro zone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index declined by 2.9 percent. Germany's DAX dropped 3.7 percent and US stock futures were down 1.7 percent.
The losses in Europe and the United States mirrored the move in MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan, which posted its biggest loss since 24 August last year, Reuters reported on Monday.
Out of 165 listed shares, only 15 stocks saw gains, while 123 stocks saw losses. Daily turnover for listed securities reached some LE530 million on Monday.
As all market sectors were coloured red, heavyweight share Commercial International Bank (CIB) went down 0.7 percent to close at LE38.72.
Real estate developer Talaat Moustafa Group (TMG) decreased 0.9 percent to register a price of LE6.49 per share.
Global Telecom Holding (GT) tumbled 1.9 percent, to be sold at LE2.02 per share. Leading investment bank EFG-Hermes plummeted 3 percent to be sold at LE8.53 per share.
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