Egypt's bourse has opened this week posting gains of EGP 342 million coinciding with the launch of the stamp tax on the daily selling and buying transactions. The bourse indices were wavering in green notes during Sunday morning. Benchmark EGX30 inched up by 0.16% to 5436.69 p. EGX20 also rose by 0.14% to 6259.22 p. Meanwhile, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 advanced by 0.10% to 452.22 p. Price index EGX100 increased by 0.11% to 761.57 p. The capital market has amounted to EGP 365.183 billion, according to data compiled by Amwal Al Ghad English at 11:12 a.m. Cairo time (09:12 GMT) during the opening session of Sunday. The trading volume has reached 4.657 million securities worth EGP 19.114 million, exchanged through 1.057 transactions during Sunday's opening. Also during the opening session, 77 listed securities have been traded in; 10 declined, 21 advanced; while 46 steadied. Egyptians and the non-Arab foreigners' buying transactions have backed EGX's early gains as they were net buyers seizing 77.4% and 17.45% respectively, of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 503.963 thousand and EGP 790.586 thousand, excluding the deals. Meanwhile, Arabs were net sellers seizing 5.15% of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 1.294 million excluding the deals. Stamp Tax Kicks Off: Egypt's Central Clearing, Depository and Registry house (MCDR) will start today collecting the recently-approved stamp tax on Egyptian stock exchange's daily buying and selling transactions. As pursuant to the recently-approved draft, the stamp tax shall be imposed on the Cairo bourse's daily selling and buying transactions at 0.001. The stamp tax shall be also applied on the advertisements at 20%. Capital market experts alongside EG-Finance, Division of Securities, Egyptian Capital Market Association (ECMA) and Egyptian Investment Management Association (EIMA) are urging the decision makers in Egypt to reconsider imposing the stamp tax on the bourse daily transactions amid the current sharp decline in the volumes and values of trades driven by the political and economic turbulence. They further said imposing the stamp tax on the daily transactions will increase the burden on the investors by 40-65%. Accordingly, heavier burdens will likely drive the investors to exit the market soon.
