Market Report: Egypt stocks post minor gains amid trade uncertainty

The main index edges up a further 0.25 per cent as speculative investors find ways to make trading profits in a market lacking direction

Egyptian stocks recorded a second day of minor gains as speculative investors targeted mainly mid-cap firms in the week's final trading session.
After several days of seesawing between marginal rises and falls, the benchmark EGX30 followed Wednesday's climb by edging up a further 0.25 per cent to 4,676 points. The broader EGX70 gained nearly 1 per cent.
Overall market turnover was limited to LE285.5 million, around half of what was the post-uprising average until just a few weeks ago.
"These low turnover levels have become the new norm, and they are a reflection of the overall status of Egypt,” says Ashraf Abdel Aziz, head of institutions sales at Arabia Online Securities.
Driving the main index was the interest of more-traditional investors who focused on high-caps like the Commerical International Bank (CIB) which saw more than a tenth of total trade and finished up 1.85 per cent.
Interest in Orascom Telecom, up 1.78 per cent, and Pioneers Holding -- whose value held steady -- helped the rise; mild declines for Orascom Construction and Mobinil limited the gains.
There was more movement in mid-range stock, the type generally preferred by Egyptians who make up the vast majority of individual investors. Individuals, many of them speculative traders, made up 63.45 per cent of the volume in Thursday's session.
Abdel Aziz claims that the security vacuum on the Egyptian streets is being mirrored in the stock market, where a lack of direction and clarity is leaving it prey for speculators and their profit-making schemes.
“There hasn't been much control over trading recently. There is much more room for stock manipulation than before,” he says. “EGX70 stocks are perfect for that, because they are about the right size in terms of liquidity so individuals can move prices to realize profits.”
This was evident in the top-gainers: Arab Moltaka Investments, which surged 9.44 per cent, and chemicals producer Kima, up 7.9 per cent.
Abdel Aziz thinks that while uncertainty about Egypt's political and economical future is driving investors away, a shortage of liquidity is also slowing the market's recovery.
“The market is facing serious problems but the government has not taken any significant step towards revitalizing it. What exactly is the new cabinet doing if not helping the country's exchange?” he asks.
The EGX30 benchmark has falled 35 per cent this year in the wake of January's uprising with market turnover plunging last week to its lowest point in some six years.
On Monday, the daily business newspaper Al Mal reported plans by the stock exchange to introduce new trading measures.
These included the introduction of short-selling, a new index measuring the most active shares and changes to the Nile-X and Over-The-Counter markets.
Another plan involves the exchange increasing the amount of data available for the bond market with an aim of encouraging companies to resort to this tool as a means to finance their projects.