Egypt’s stocks have ended up the week’s trading on Thursday impacted by the expansion of Arab investors present in the country. Especially, after Dubai's largest lender has agreed to buy a 95.2 per cent stake in BNP Paribas' Egyptian branch from the French bank in a deal which values the entire business at $500 million.
Last week, French bank Societe Generale said it had sold its 77 per cent stake in National Societe Generale Bank's (NSGB) Egyptian arm to Qatar's QNB bank for $1.97 billion.
“The problem is the non-Arab investors are leaving the country,” said Mostafa Badra, a capital market expert.
The benchmark EGX30 rose by 0.4 per cent, standing at 5.443 points in a session seen by Arab and foreign investors net-buyer with LE8.2 million and LE117.8 thousand respectively.
“Egyptians were net-seller by LE8.3 million, may be because they do not agree on the current political stance in the state,” Badra added.
The broader index EGX70 staged up 1.6 per cent.
The heavyweight share Commercial International Bank rose by 1.5 per cent, recording the highest daily turnover with LE41.6 million, which represents 7 per cent of the total daily turnover (LE589.6 million).
Egypt's biggest investment bank EFG-Hermes closed up 2.3 per cent.
The blue-chip Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) slipped 1.04 per cent; meanwhile, the property shares Talaat Mostafa Group slightly rose by 0.4 per cent.
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