Egypt bourse has ended this week incurring losses of EGP 2.9 billion driven by local and non-Arab foreign selling pressures. The Egyptian Exchange's indices have closed on dark red notes on Thursday. Egypt's benchmark index EGX30 sank by 1.35% to close at 5343.21 p; while the EGX20, it pushed down by 1.31% to end at 6130.32 p. Meanwhile, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 inched down by 0.63% to conclude at 447.41 p. The price index EGX100 also dropped by 0.79% to finish at 751.5 p. The capital market has closed at EGP 360.783 billion on Thursday. During the closing session of Thursday, the trading volume reached 46.987 million securities, higher than of the closing session of Wednesday of 39.219 million securities, representing an increase of 7.768 thousand securities. For the traded value, it reached EGP 209.471 million, exchanged through 11.684 thousand transactions. During the closing session of Thursday, 163 listed securities have been traded in; 108 declined, 26 advanced; while 29 keeping their previous levels. Investors' Activity: Egyptians and the non-Arab foreigners' selling pressures triggered EGX's losses as they were net sellers seizing 75.29% and 15.52% respectively, of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 6.802 and EGP 11.252 million excluding the deals. Meanwhile, Arabs were net buyers seizing 9.18% of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 18.055 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.
