Egypt bourse has ended sessions on Sunday posting gains of EGP 1.2 billion backed by local and non-Arab foreigners' buying transactions. The Egyptian Exchange's indices have closed on green notes, except for the price index which solely fell on Sunday. Egypt's benchmark index EGX30 edged up by 0.43% to close at 5451.23 p; while the EGX20, it rose by 0.26% to end at 6266.67 p. Meanwhile, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 went up by 0.02% to conclude at 451.82 p. On the other hand, the price index EGX100 dipped by 0.02% to finish at 760.55 p. The capital market has closed at EGP 366.050 billion on Sunday. During the closing session of Sunday, the trading volume hit 38.414 million securities, less than the closing session of Thursday of 60.625 million securities, representing a decrease of 22.211 thousand securities. The decline in today's volume of trades was in the light of starting to impose the stamp tax on the EGX's daily buying and selling transactions despites the market experts' worries. For the traded value, it reached EGP 179.889 million, exchanged through 10.480 thousand transactions. During the closing session of Sunday, 159 listed securities have been traded in; 55 declined, 49 advanced; while 55 keeping their previous levels. Investors' Activity: Egyptians and the non-Arab foreigners' were net buyers seizing 95.81% and 2.11% respectively, of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 1.791 million and EGP 9.667 million excluding the deals. Meanwhile, Arabs were net sellers seizing 2.09% of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 7.875 million, excluding the deals. Egypt Bourse Stamp Tax – Day One: 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.
