Egypt's bourse has opened sessions of Tuesday posting early gains of EGP 1.8 billion backed by local buyers. Accordingly, the bourse indices were wavering in green notes on Tuesday morning. Benchmark EGX30 inched up by 0.95% to 5370.52 p. EGX20 also climbed by 1.21% to 6143.36 p. Meanwhile, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 rose by 0.24% to 442.15 p. Price index EGX100 increased by 0.23% to 744.54 p. The capital market has amounted to EGP 360.407 billion, according to data compiled by Amwal Al Ghad English at 11:06 a.m. Cairo time (09:06 GMT) during the opening session of Tuesday. Trading Volumes & Values: The trading volume has reached 3.307 million securities worth EGP 14.811 million, exchanged through 980 transactions during Sunday's opening. Also during the opening session, 61 listed securities have been traded in; 6 declined, 32 advanced; while 23 steadied. Investors' Activities: Local were net buyers seizing 78.89% of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 2.513 excluding the deals. Meanwhile, Arabs and the non-Arab foreigners were net sellers seizing 5.84% and 15.28% respectively, of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 14.292 thousand and EGP 2.499 million, excluding the deals. Egypt Bourse Stamp Tax – Day Eight: 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.
