The stock market closes in the red zone under the pressure of Arab sales

Rana Mamdouh

Egyptian stock indexes closed Monday on a collective decline under the pressure of the sales forces from Arab investors.

The main EGX30 index lost 0.28% and closed at 13421 points.

Commercial International Bank (CIB), the largest proportion of the index, rose 0.30% to close at 71.07 EGP.

The EGX70 index and the broader EGX100 index both yielded 0.43%.

The volume of transactions was 389,655 million pounds, or 13,355 transactions out of 174 companies.

The market prices of 84 companies fell against a rise of 40% while prices have not changed 50.

The sales trend was dominated by Arab investors, registering a net gain of 26.310 million Egyptian pounds, of which 13.386 million for institutions and 12.923 million EGP for individuals.

At the same time, Egyptian investors were net buyers, accounting for 15.880 billion EGP, with net purchases of 38.561 million EGP, compared to 22.681 million EGP for net retail sales.

Foreign investors recorded net purchases of EGP 10.430 million from institutions, for a net amount of EGP 12.151 billion, compared with EGP 1.721 million for net sales of individuals.

Egyptians controlled 86.51% of total foreign exchange transactions, against 13.15% for foreign investors and 0.34% for Arabs, after excluding transactions.

Institutions dominated 97.42% of today 's session and the remaining 2.57%.

Egyptian starch and glucose top the list at 9.94%, followed by Arab Dairy Products, Arab Dairy Panda (9.94%) and Suez Cbad Technology Settlement (9.91%).

At the same time, Ismailia National Food Industries was the main loser with 7.26%, followed by Wadi Kom Ombo Land Reclamation of 5.96% and Tharwa Capital Holding of 5.45%.

Sameh Gharib, director of technical badysis at Jouzoor Securities, said CIB had managed to reduce the losses of the stock market by the second half of the session and push it to maintain the level of 13400 points.

Mr Gharib pointed out that the main securities were able to close deals by maintaining important areas of support, especially international trade, reflecting the entry of limited buying forces into the market .

"The weakness of the stock market liquidity is attributed to the lack of economic incentives for investors," said Ghosour's director of technical badysis.

Sameh expects the market to evolve in the day between 13,377 support levels and 14,000 resistance points.

For his part, Abdulhamid Imam, a financial badyst at Tycoon Securities, believes the market needs leaders to compete with the stock market to restore investor confidence.

He explained that limited purchasing power had appeared in the second half of the session, but that low trade volumes were reducing the market's ability to sustain itself for a long time.

He predicted that the Egyptian stock market would continue to evolve between 13300-14000 points