The Egyptian Exchange has opened Wednesday's session incurring losses of EGP 993 million. The early losses were driven by the fact that the local and Arab investors are in full alert awaiting the Cairo Criminal Court's ruling in the Egyptian Prosecutor General's decree on freezing the assets of 21 Egyptian and Arab businessmen following investigations related to stock manipulation during the sale of the National Bank of Egypt to the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) in 2007. The capital market has amounted to EGP 361.137 billion, according to data compiled by Amwal Al Ghad English at 11:05 a.m. Cairo time (09:05 GMT) during Wednesday's opening session. The EGX indices opened in red notes during the opening. Benchmark EGX30 tumbled by 0.70% to 5205.72 p; while EGX20 inched down by 0.77% to 6117.49 p. Meanwhile, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 fell by 0.38% to 453.14 p. Price index EGX100 dipped by 0.40% to 756.1 p. Egyptian Prosecutor General had ordered freezing the assets owned by 21 businessmen including 5 Saudis. The five Saudi businessmen have been identified as Sulaiman Abanami – the most prominent Saudi investor in the EGX; Hasan Abdulrahaman Al-Sharbatli - Owner of City Stars Complex in Cairo; Gharamallah Al-Zahrani, Muiyadh Al-Zahrani, and Aidarus Al-Isai. This was after trading in 78 listed securities; 42 declined, 7 advanced; while 29 keeping their previous levels. During Wednesday's opening session, the trading volume has reached 8.488 million securities worth EGP 15.350 million, exchanged 1.158 transactions. Egyptians and Arabs' alertness have driven EGX's opening losses as they were net sellers seizing 86.78% and 6.68% respectively, of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 174.265 thousand and EGP 692.381 thousand excluding the deals. Meanwhile, the non-Arab foreign were net buyers seizing 6.54% of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 866.645 thousand excluding the deals.
