The Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX) has kicked off the week's trading by requesting financial and operations information for listed companies. The request comes after companies experienced a series of losses last week which saw the market lose some EGP 37.9bn. EGX said that companies need to disclose any activity that led to recent movements in the price of stocks. "The management aims by this action to give a clear and objective picture of the actual situation of the listed companies and their updated financial indicators after the downturn that hit the international stock exchanges over the past week," EGX said in its official statement. EGX mentioned that "international reports have warned off the possibility of slowdown in global economic growth". It added that this slowdown drove the stock market to a downward trend. "This downtrend affected the Arab markets as well as the Egyptian Exchange," the statement read. The market lost EGP 14.4bn last Sunday and a further EGP 1.6bn on Monday. The loss continued on Tuesday, with the market shedding EGP 9.4bn. The stock market losses slowed down on Wednesday as only EGP 149m were shed. The slowdown did not last for long, however, as Thursday saw losses amounting to EGP 12.2bn. On 19 October, the market shed EGP 2.1bb, witnessing a drop in all its main indexes. The benchmark index declined by 0.81% to stand at 8523.87 points while the EGX-70, which comprises small and medium enterprise companies, fell by 0.65%. The broader index EGX-100 inched down by 0.81%. "We know that there is a psychological impact on the investor due to the case of the decline which hit the international markets over the past week," EGX Chairman Mohamed Omran said. "The investor should have an objective vision on the performance of companies that he/she in to make sure of the probability of the existence of such effects on the domestic market." Last month, Cairo Investment and Real Estate Development's chairman Hassan Al-Kalla announced the company will be delisting from the stock market. He added that the exchange "does not fund growth" and is "merely an authority that collects fees and fines". "The Egyptian Exchange management applies a policy that forces companies to flee. Its goal is to increase fees and fines and it sucks the blood out of companies," Al-Kalla said.
