Egypt's bourse has opened this week incurring losses of EGP 153 million driven by early foreign selling pressures. Accordingly, the bourse indices were wavering in red notes on Sunday morning. Benchmark EGX30 inched down by 0.24% to 5330.38 p. EGX20 also dropped by 0.41% to 6105.02 p. Meanwhile, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 fell by 0.15% to 446.75 p. Price index EGX100 tumbled by 0.15% to 750.37 p. The capital market has amounted to EGP 360.630 billion, according to data compiled by Amwal Al Ghad English at 11:09 a.m. Cairo time (09:09 GMT) during the opening session of Sunday. Trading Volumes & Values: The trading volume has reached 1.455 million securities worth EGP 6.322million, exchanged through 584 transactions during Sunday's opening. Also during the opening session, 120 listed securities have been traded in; 26 declined, 7 advanced; while 23 steadied. Investors' Activities: Arabs and the non-Arab foreign selling pressures have driven EGX's opening losses as they were net sellers seizing 6.5% and 3.78% respectively, of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 133.215 thousand and EGP 232.723 thousand, excluding the deals. Meanwhile, Local were net buyers seizing 89.72% of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 365.938 thousand excluding the deals. Egypt Bourse Stamp Tax – Day Six: Egypt's Central Clearing, Depository and Registry house (MCDR) started a week earlier 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.
