Egypt bourse has ended the sessions on Wednesday incurring losses of EGP 3.6 billion driven by the local buyers amid the Ethiopian dam concerns. Accordingly, the Egyptian Exchange's indices have closed on dark red notes by Wednesday afternoon. Egypt's benchmark index EGX30 inched down by 1.29% to close at 5338.09 p; while the EGX20, it sank by 1.64% to end at 6039.91 p. Meanwhile, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 fell by 0.88% to conclude at 438.45 p. The price index EGX100 also plummeted by 1.33% to finish at 736.24 p. The capital market has closed at EGP 357.793 billion on Wednesday. Traded Volumes & Trades: During the closing session of Wednesday, the trading volume reached 68.918 million securities, higher than Tuesday's levels of 39.113 million securities, to represent an increase of 29.805 thousand securities. For the traded value, it reached EGP 339.900 million, exchanged through 14.051 thousand transactions. During the closing session of Wednesday, 172 listed securities have been traded in; 113 declined, 27 advanced; while 32 keeping their previous levels. Investors' Activity: Egyptians' selling pressures driven EGX's closing losses as they were net sellers seizing 54.98% of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 8.517 million, excluding the deals. Meanwhile, the non-Arab foreigners and the Arabs were net buyers seizing 39.37% and 5.65% respectively, of the total markets, with a net equity of EGP 3.203 million and EGP 5.314 million excluding the deals. Egypt Bourse Stamp Tax – Day Nine: Egypt's Central Clearing, Depository and Registry house (MCDR) started by the beginning of last week 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.
