Egypt bourse has ended sessions on Tuesday incurring further losses of EGP 925 million driven by the non-Arab selling pressures coinciding the third day of adopting the new stamp tax on the daily transactions. The Egyptian Exchange's indices have closed on red notes on Tuesday, except for the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 which solely advanced. Egypt's benchmark index EGX30 tumbled by 0.46% to close at 5407.25 p; while the EGX20, it dropped by 0.56% to end at 6204.9 p. Meanwhile, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 inched up by 0.01% to conclude at 448.73 p. On the other hand, the price index EGX100 fell by 0.19% to finish at 755.74 p. The capital market has closed at EGP 363.285 billion on Tuesday. During the closing session of Tuesday, the trading volume reported declining levels of 59.016 million securities, less than the closing session of Monday of 72.478 million securities, representing a decrease of 13.462 thousand securities. For the traded value, it reached EGP 239.684 million, exchanged through 11.229 thousand transactions. During the closing session of Tuesday, 169 listed securities have been traded in; 100 declined, 28 advanced; while 41 keeping their previous levels. Investors' Activity: Triggered by the stamp tax, the non-Arab foreigners were net sellers seizing 19.69% of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 2.638 million, excluding the deals. Meanwhile, Egyptians and Arabs were net buyers seizing 73.27% and 7.04% respectively, of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 987.062 thousand and EGP 1.651 million excluding the deals. Egypt Bourse Stamp Tax – Day Three: Egypt's Central Clearing, Depository and Registry house (MCDR) started on Sunday 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.
