The foreign selling pressures have driven the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) to end this week incurring losses of EGP 450 billion. Local and foreign investors in the country are in full alert to the cash-strapped Egypt's agreement with the International Monetary Fund over a long-awaited US$ 4.8 billion loan, besides the settlement agreement between Orascom Construction Industries and the country's Tax Authority over EGP 14 billion tax claims and the expectant cabinet reshuffle in a move that could help political consensus on IMF's US$ 4.8 billion. The capital market has reached to EGP 357.153 billion during Wednesday's closing session. The EGX indices ended Wednesday in red notes. Egypt's benchmark index EGX30 dipped by 0.22% to close at 5225.24 p; while the EGX20, it also dropped by 0.60% to end at 6027 p. Meanwhile, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 fell by 0.13% to conclude at 448.44 p. Price index EGX100 inched down by 0.22% to finish 747.93 p. The EGX management has announced that it will halt its session for Thursday on the memory of Sinai Liberation Day. During Wednesday's closing, the trading volume hit 68.916 million securities, less than Tuesday's 58.689 million securities, representing an increase of 10.227 thousand securities. For the traded value, it reached EGP 235.785 million, exchanged through 13.251 thousand transactions. This was after trading in 164 listed securities; 84 declined, 50 advanced; while 30 keeping their previous levels. Arabs and the non-Arab foreigners' selling pressures have driven EGX's closing losses as they were net sellers seizing 8.49% and 19.65% respectively, of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 12.869 million and EGP 37.553 million excluding the deals. Meanwhile, Egyptians were net buyers seizing 71.86% of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 50.423 million, excluding the deals. Egypt Says Ok To IMF's Requests..Signing Loan Within 5 Weeks - Official Dr. Abdel Shakour Shaalan, the Executive Director representing Egypt and twelve Arab countries and the Maldives on the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has asserted that the Egyptian government has finalized the IMF's essential requests for the $ 4.8 billion loan, which it is still under negotiation, expecting that the final document for agreement loan will be signed within five weeks. Shaalan added, during his meeting with the media delegation accompanying the AmCham's Doorknock mission chaired by Gamal Moharram, that there is no intention to increase the loan's value as what had been rumored recently, pointing out that the approval of IMF to Egypt on the loan will allow to access many grants and aids notably EU aid, which was announced earlier by it, as well as it will be like a confidence certificate to the Egyptian economy outside all the donor countries. Shaalan expresses his optimism about the future of the Egyptian economy in the coming years as the it has all the mechanisms that can attract investments and investors along with the rocketing growth rates which it owns, noting that Egypt has a strong economic reform program to overcome its current crisis under the Egyptian government's commitment to implement this program; confirming that the Egyptian management is moving in the right direction. Shaalan has affirmed that the Egyptian crisis experienced by Egypt would have occurred even in the absence of 25 January revolution a reference to the growing overpopulation that are not offset by achieving real growth rates according to the official states Index.
