CAIRO: While Egypt's benchmark EGX 30 index ended the week in the negative, down 0.31 percent to 5,462 points on Thursday, the broader EGX 100 ended slightly higher than the previous day's close at 0.36 percent. However, the main index had managed a rebound from an initial 2.2 percent decline in early trade due to 10 percent limit-down orders placed on Commercial International Bank (CIB) and Talaat Moustafa, prompting their suspension for half an hour, Hashem Ghoneim of Pyramids Capital told Reuters. Aftab Ahmed, Citi Egypt country officer, was invited to ring the opening bell on Thursday, saying: “We are thrilled to see that over the last six days since the market reopened it has continued to perform in an orderly fashion.” The week's trading began on a high note as the EGX 30, realizing its highest single day gain in over a year, closed up 5.3 percent on Sunday and the EGX 100 rising 7.2 percent. EGX 100 and 30 indices continued to perform well on Monday, closing 2.07 percent and 0.75 percent higher, respectively. Both continued in the green Tuesday and Wednesday as acting bourse Chief Mohamed Abdel Salam said that protective regulations governing Egypt's stock exchange would be gradually removed. The exchange had reduced trading hours and enforced circuit breakers as protective measures after the bourse had been closed for nearly two months. On Wednesday, the bourse announced normal trading hours will resume on Sunday. “We have been very transparent with [our clients] and we've said that the market needs time to stabilize, but the past week has been incredibly positive and the signs have been very encouraging,” said Steve Donovan, Middle East and Pakistan Global Transaction Services Head at Citi. “We are very bullish about the future and frankly I'm very excited about the future,” he added. Donovan said that Citi would continue working with the exchange to ensure that local and foreign investors are getting the best service possible. The bank is planning to organize road shows in Asia and Europe, starting from the third quarter of 2011 to attract “new investor faces to Egypt.” Ahmed, speaking about the bank's role in the Egyptian market, said that Citi's presence in Egypt dates back 75 years but has strengthened over the last 15, now representing 90 percent of foreign broker dealers that invest in Egypt and more than two-thirds of the global custodians, amounting to 170,000 transactions a year. He assured that Citi's strategy has not changed in Egypt and that he thinks there is a “great opportunity” in the market. “Based on the indicators that we are closely tracking we can see that there continues to be a high level of confidence in the market, you don't see signs of panic, and you see the foreign investor stay committed.” “In terms of our conversations with investors groups, especially the ones who have been investing in Egypt for a long time, they, like us, have showed confidence in all the fundamentals.”
