Egypt's bourse has opened the sessions on Thursday incurring losses of EGP 2.15 billion driven by local and non-Arab foreign selling pressures. Accordingly, the bourse indices were wavering in dark red notes on Thursday morning. Benchmark EGX30 inched down by 1.15% to 5353.84 p. EGX20 also sank by 1.15% to 6140.58 p. Meanwhile, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 dropped by 0.40% to 448.44 p. Price index EGX100 tumbled by 0.62% to 752.77 p. The capital market has amounted to EGP 361.565 billion, according to data compiled by Amwal Al Ghad English at 11:23 a.m. Cairo time (09:23 GMT) during the opening session of Thursday. Trading Volumes & Values: The trading volume has reached 9.863 million securities worth EGP 51.228 million, exchanged through 2.281 thousand transactions during Thursday's opening. Also during the opening session, 120 listed securities have been traded in; 72 declined, 8 advanced; while 40 steadied. Investors' Activities: Local and the non-Arab foreign selling pressures have driven EGX's opening losses as they were net sellers seizing 74.81% and 9.19% respectively, of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 7.163 million and EGP 4.458 million thousand, excluding the deals. Meanwhile, Arabs were net buyers seizing 16% of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 11.622 million excluding the deals. Egypt Bourse Stamp Tax – Day Five: 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.
