During Monday closing session, the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) has managed to turn its opening losses into gains of around EGP 5 billion as the capital market has amounted to EGP 348.771 billion. The EGX indices closed in green except for the EGX70 which solely fall. The main index, EGX30 pushed up by 2.63% to end at 5047.17 p. EGX20 surged by 2.47% to close at 5774.18 p. Meanwhile, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 dipped by 0.92% to conclude at 437.7 pts. Price index EGX100 inched higher by 0.11% to finish at 737.29 p. Traded volume reached 153.343 million securities worth EGP 406.122 million, exchanged 25.027 thousand transactions. This was after trading in 169 listed securities; 91 declined, 54 advanced; while 24 keeping their previous levels. EGX's gains were backed by Arabs and the non-Arab Foreigners' buying deals as they were net buyers seizing 14.22% and 15.33% respectively, of the total market, with a net equity of EGP 43.958 million and EGP 976.732 thousand, excluding the deals. On the other hand, Egyptians were net sellers seizing 70.45% of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 44.934 million excluding the deals. The benchmark stock index surrendered its spot as the world's best performer this year after renewed political unrest in the country triggered the worst drop since last year's uprising. EGX30, which tumbled the most on Sunday (Black Sunday) since the start of last year's uprising, slid 3.9 percent to 4,726.04 at 10:37 a.m. in Cairo today, trimming this year's gains to 31 percent. The measure lost the top spot to Pakistan's Karachi 100 Index and fell to fifth place among 93 indexes tracked by Bloomberg. The Egyptian pound, subject to managed float, weakened 0.2 percent, the biggest intraday drop since December 2011, to 6.1042 a dollar. "Egypt has a political risk factor, which will affect sentiment in the short-term," says Marwan Shurrab, vice-president and chief trader at Gulfmena Investment. "It has rallied aggressively after the revolution - a sell off like yesterday is expected." Investors said protests in Egypt were affecting sentiment across the Gulf region.
