Egyptian Stock reopening was delayed until next Sunday
The reopening of Egypt's stock exchange - whose last day open was 27 January due to the revolution - is delayed once more according to state-run news agency, Middle East News Agency (MENA).
“Trading is due to reopen on Sunday, 6 March,” MENA stated.
Originally, it was scheduled to open on 13 February, which was postponed to 1 March, today.
The demonstrations caused a 16 per cent drop in the stock market: a loss of around LE70bn (US$12bn) in the last two sessions before closure.
The stock market did not open as usual on 30 January, after unprecedented public protests that ultimately led to President Hosni Mubarak's resignation.
Last week, the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) announced that it would take precautionary measures to prevent panic and a possible dive in the first hours of the stock market reopening.
New measures include reducing the trading time to three hours from 10:30am to 1:30pm and cancelling the posting of the normal pre-session exploratory prices before trade opens.
Trading on stocks will be carried on within the pre-set price range, to be halted for a half hour in the case of a five per cent change in value. A ten per cent change in value will warrant a fixing of the price of that stock until the end of the session.
A new price range will be set for the EGX 100 whereby trading will halt for a half hour if there is a five per cent change, and for as long as decreed by the chairman in case of a 10 per cent change .
The minimum capital requirement for brokerage firms has been reduced from ten per cent to five per cent. The resumption of the stock market, closed since 28 January amid the political turmoil in Egypt was delayed many times; first because of the escalation of the revolution and later due to large sit-ins in the banking sector.
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