The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) has turned its opening gains into losses by the end of Sunday's sessions. The EGX has incurred losses of EGP 284 million during Sunday's closing session for the market is in full alert of whether cash-strapped Egypt would obtain the International Monetary Fund's long-awaited US$ 4.8 billion or not. The capital market has reached to EGP 360.612 billion during Sunday's closing session. The EGX indices ended Sunday in red notes, except for the mid- and small-cap index, EGX 70 solely advanced. Egypt's benchmark index EGX30 tumbled by 0.28% to close at 5253.69 p; while the EGX20, it also declined by 0.03% to end at 6165 p. Meanwhile, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 advanced by 0.54% to conclude at 452.86 p. Price index EGX100 slumped by 0.26% to finish at 749.85 p. During Sunday's closing, the trading volume hit 70.808 million securities, higher than Thursday's 64.780 million securities, representing an increase of 6.028 thousand securities. For the traded value, it reached EGP 199.200 million, exchanged through 12.749 thousand transactions. This was after trading in 167 listed securities; 43 declined, 75 advanced; while 49 keeping their previous levels. The non-Arab foreigners and Arabs were net sellers seizing 4.21% and 9.69% respectively, of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 2.148 million and EGP 7.234 million excluding the deals. Meanwhile, Egyptians were net buyers seizing 86.1% of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 9.382 million, excluding the deals. IMF-Egypt Loan Saga: Ahead of 2013 Spring Annual Meeting of the IMF and World Bank In Washington DC, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said in a news conference, Egypt's decision last year to change course regarding planned changes to economic policy had set back progress with the IMF on loan deal talks, "We've gone back to the drawing board," Lagarde said. "There is clearly more work to be done." On Friday on the sidelines of the IMF-WB annual meetings, IMF Director for the Middle East and North Africa Masood Ahmed said the IMF and Egyptian finance officials are working to conclude the talks "as quickly as feasible" on the long-awaited US$4.8 billion loan deal to ease the country's deepening economic crisis, a senior official said on Friday. "I don't have a date for when those discussions will be completed precisely, but Egyptian authorities and our own team are working diligently to try to bring that set of discussions to a conclusion as quickly as feasible," Ahmed noted It is worth noting that Egypt has resumed talks over the US$4.8 million loan in Washington on the sidelines of the IMF and WB's annual spring meetings. Egyptian Central Bank Governor Hisham Ramez, Finance Minister Al-Morsi Hegazy alongside Planning Minister Ashraf Al-Araby are attending the annual meetings in pursuit of reaching a final agreement over the international lender's loan seeking to rescue the country's ailing economy. Later on Saturday, Lagarde declared the IMF "would not give up, would not leave the table" until it had struck a loan deal with Egypt. She said she is expecting that the IMF talks with the Egyptian authorities will resumed next week to finalized the long-awaited loan. "I hope we continue the progress that we have made. It is a task and we will not give up, we will not leave the table, we have to continue the work and have to be of support to the Egyptian population," Lagarde told a news conference at the end of a meeting of the IMF's steering committee. To get the money, the cash-strapped Egypt has to convince the IMF it is serious about reforms to boost growth and curb an unaffordable budget deficit. That implies tax hikes and politically risky cuts in the generous system of state subsidies for fuel and food, including bread. After two years of political upheaval, Egypt's foreign currency reserves have fallen to critically low levels, threatening its ability to buy wheat and fuel.
