Traders work at the Egyptian Stock Exchange in Cairo (Photo: Reuters)
Egypt’s stocks ended the week plunging as the main index EGX30 declined 0.23 percent, recording 4,827.02 points on deteriorating heavy-weight share Orascom Telecom (OT).
Hesham Halaldeen, head of research sales at Naeem Brokerage, said that OT has been hit by a big slump for the second consecutive day, declining at 4 percent and negatively impacting the market.
OT’s partners Orascom Telecom Media and Technology and Mobinil dropped 1.4 and 0.3 percent respectively.
Reuters reported on Thursday that Egyptian stocks eased as concerns lingered that an emboldened Muslim Brotherhood could deepen political instability.
Leading Brotherhood figure Khairat El-Shater has filed his recommendation forms at the Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission (SPEC) in order to be placed on Egypt's presidential ballot as the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) candidate.
"Investors are hesitating because we have the maximum amount of ambiguity, which means risk, less ability to forecast and analyse and therefore no appetite," said Osama Mourad, CEO of Arab Finance Brokerage.
The broader index EGX70 refused to turn down and rose by 0.6 percent.
Egyptians were net-buyers on Thursday, collecting LE9.6 million in stocks, while foreigners were net-sellers of LE13.2 million.
Commercial International Bank (CIB) rose by 1.2 per cent. "The news of capital increase was confirmed," said Ashraf Abdel-Aziz, head of institutional sales at Arabeya Online.
CIB sent a statement to the Egyptian stocks on Thursday, including approval for a capital increase by LE37.7 million to reach LE5.972 billion.
Ezz Steel rose by 0.7 percent, while Palm Hills stood at zero, reaching the highest daily turnover of LE81.4 million.
"The session saw an odd transaction of 38 million shares, but it was not clear by which parties," Abdel-Aziz commented.
From the day's 170 listed stocks, 75 gained in value and 67 saw losses, in a session which saw turnover of LE380 million.
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