Cairo stocks closed in less red Thursday recording losses of 3.5 billion Egyptian pounds (US$447.15 million) as foreign broad selloff continued. This comes after Finance Minister Hany Dimian told Reuters that the country Egypt will start lowering the tax ceiling for companies and individuals in high income brackets and freeze a 10 percent tax on capital gains within two weeks. "We await the issuing of the amendments ... within a few days; one or two weeks at the most," he said. The market capitalisation has reached 444.068 billion pounds during the closing session of Thursday. Indices Egypt's benchmark index, EGX30 edged down 0.94 percent to 7172.63 points. The newly-launched EGX50 EWI index tumbled 0.90 percent to 1279.83 points. EGX20 also shrank 0.90 percent to 7148.36 points. In addition, the mid- and small-cap index EGX70 dropped 0.67 percent to 410.04 points. The price index, EGX100 fell 0.29 percent to 862.81 points. Turnovers remain low On Thursday, the bourse's trading volume has reached 211.009 million securities, with turnovers closed at 590.857 million pounds, exchanged through 20,906 thousand transactions. Also during the closing session, 166 listed securities have been traded in; 90 declined, 32 advanced; while 40 kept their previous levels. Investors' Activities Arab and Foreign investors remained net sellers Thursday seizing 5.46 percent and 17.19 percent, respectively of the total markets, with a net equity of 5.880 million and 67.946 million pounds, respectively, excluding the deals. On the contrary, the Egyptian investors were net buyers capturing 77.35 percent of the total market, with a net equity of 73.827 million pounds, excluding the deals.
