Traders work at the Egyptian stock exchange in Cairo August 18, 2013 (Photo: Reuters)
Egypt’s stocks started down on the week’s trading as the bottom continued to fall out of the market on what analysts claimed was strong selling of listed mutual funds.
The main EGX30 index slumped 2.3 percent closing at 7,524 points, down from 7,800 by midday trading.
Eissa Fathy, vice head of the securities division at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, attributed the loss to listed mutual funds and individuals’ sales.
“The financial watchdogs have no right to stop selling, but they can initiate a probe if something doubtful happens,” Fathy told Ahram Online.
According to Fathy, the large amount of selling orders received by the listed funds from clients was abnormal action. “We know the loss yielding from booking profit and it isn’t like that,” he said.
“Aswan’s incident wasn’t influential on investors,” Fathy added.
Some 23 people were killed in Al-Seel Al-Refy district, east of Aswan, on Friday and Saturday when a feud erupted between two tribes.
The violence resumed Sunday, with two more dead and 16 injured. The flare-up of fighting has brought the death toll to 25, with 56 wounded.
The broader EGX70 index slipped one percent in a session that saw a total daily turnover of listed securities worth some LE901.6 million.
Domestic investors were net sellers of LE87.2 million, while foreigners were net buyers of LE29 million.
The market’s bigwig share Commercial International Bank (CIB) rose slightly 0.1 percent to close at LE35.9 per share.
Telecommunication stocks Telecom Egypt and Global Telecom plunged 6.8 percent and 3.8 percent, registering LE14.5 and LE4.1 per share respectively.
Property securities led by Talaat Mostafa Group (TMG), Palm Hills Development (PHD) and Six of October Development and Investment (SODIC) were down five percent, 2.5 percent and 3.1 percent to close at LE7.1, LE3.3 and LE22.3 per share respectively.
Short link: