Egypt’s stock market raised LE4 billion in the first quarter of 2015 for six companies, but local and regional factors might take a negative toll on the rest of the year's performance, Bourse chairman Mohamed Omran told a money and finance conference on Tuesday.
The amount raised in the first three months of 2015 amounts to twice that raised in 2014, a year that witnessed IPOs of 13 companies collecting LE1.9 billion.
The current year also saw the first listing of a state-owned company in ten years, MOPCO for fertilisers, while the listing of three petroleum companies remains under negotiation.
However, investors have shied away from the stock market with low stock turnovers seen in the past six months, as a recent capital gains tax raised concerns among shareholders, and regional markets proved to be tough competitors, Omran said.
While the Kuwait stock exchange has cancelled taxes on foreign investors and the Saudi exchange has opened doors to foreigners, shareholders in the Egypt bourse remain wary of methods of collecting the capital gains tax, Omran added.
Egypt’s stock exchange has fallen 3.94 percent since the beginning of 2015 down to 8,575 points.
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