In a week, the Egyptian Exchange has managed to post gains of EGP 1.4 billion backed by the final settlement agreement between Orascom Construction Industries S.A.E. and Egyptian Tax Authority that ended over 10-month disputes over tax evasion claims. The EGX was muddled by a number of recent reversal news about the official approval on the stamp tax for the bourse’s daily transactions and the termination of the pending joint venture deal between Egypt’s biggest bank EFG-Hermes and Qatar’s QInvest over the country’s regulatory deal. The capital market has hit EGP 358.612 billion at the end of last week, compared to EGP 357.153 billion at the end of a week earlier. Egypt’s stock exchange benchmark EGX 30 index inched up by 0.97% this week, representing an increase of 51.62 points, ending Thursday’s transactions at 5276.62 points compared to 5225 points at the end of last week. EGX30 hit its highest point on Thursday closing at 5276.62 points, where its lowest point reported on Tuesday at 5196.48 points. More»

Stocks traded on the Egyptian Exchange of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) – NILEX have ended this week mostly down. This was after trading in 6 stocks on Thursday; 3 declined, 2 advanced and Univert for Food Industries (UNFO) steadied at EGP 0.80. Al-Moasher for Programming and Information Dissemination (AMPI)’s stock has led NILEX downwards as it sank 2.65% to close at EGP 1.10. The stock also topped NILEX’s traded value as it reached EGP 301.702 thousand distributed to 273.750 thousand securities exchanged through 44 transactions. Port Saied for Agricultural Development and Construction (PSAD)’s stock pushed down by 2.45% to conclude at EGP 3.98. Utopia Real Estate Investment and Tourism (UTOP)’s stock fell by 0.26% to close at EGP 7.68. On the contrary, Marseille Almasreia Alkhalegeya For Holding Investment (MAAL)’s stock soared by 4.56% to close at EGP 4.13. International Business Corporation For Trading and Agencies - IBC (IBCT)’s stock inched up by 2.56% to finish at EGP 7.20. More»

Despite the fact that the planned takeover of Egypt’s largest investment bank by Qatar’s QInvest LLC has been scrapped, the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) has managed to end this week posting gains of EGP 3.1 billion backed by local buyers. The capital market has reached to EGP 358.612 billion during Thursday’s closing session. The EGX indices ended Thursday in green notes. Egypt’s benchmark index EGX30 surged by 1.54% to close at 5276.62 p; while the EGX20, it also advanced by 0.65% to end at 6025.17 p. Meanwhile, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 rose by 0.56% to conclude at 451.31 p.  Price index EGX100 climbed by 1.04% to finish 753.41 p. During closing, the trading volume hit 49.406 million securities, less than Tuesday’s 49.940 million securities, representing a decrease of 534 securities. For the traded value, it reached EGP 275.056 million, exchanged through 11.724 thousand transactions. More»

During Thursday’s midday session, the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) has posted remarkable gains of EGP 2.6 billion backed by local and Arab buyers despite remarks that the planned takeover of Egypt’s largest investment bank by Qatar’s QInvest LLC has been scrapped. The capital market has amounted to EGP 358.186 billion, according to data compiled by Amwal Al Ghad English at 1:10 p.m. Cairo time (11:10 GMT) during Thursday’s midday session. The EGX indices were wavering in green notes during the midday session. Benchmark EGX30 climbed by 1.31% to 5264.36 p; while EGX20 rose by 0.58% to 6021.03 p. Meanwhile, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 advanced by 0.49% to 451 p.  Price index EGX100 edged up by 0.91% to 752.48 p. During Thursday’s midday session, the trading volume has reached 27.622 million securities worth EGP 161.485 million, exchanged through 5.703 thousand transactions. More»

Egypt’s financial regulator - the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) announced on Thursday that it has rejected the joint venture agreement between EFG-Hermes and Qatar’s QInvest LLC due to the limited expertise of QInvest that has not undertaken any activities since inception. EFSA stated that the bidder - QInvest does not have sufficient expertise to own the units of EFG-Hermes Holding (HRHO.CA). EFSA further confirmed that, out of its regulatory role of maintaining safety and stability of non-banking capital markets and protecting their dealers, and in light of the limited expertise of the bidding company that has not undertaken any activities since inception, it decided that the bidder does not have sufficient expertise to own the units of EFG-Hermes Holding; one of Egypt’s biggest investment banks. More»

Baring Asset Management, the money manager once owned by the bank brought down by Nick Leeson, is shunning Egyptian stocks until the country’s talks with the International Monetary Fund for a $4.8 billion loan conclude. “Valuations in our opinion aren’t discounted enough to make us feel comfortable with taking positions in the market,” Michael Levy, a London-based frontier fund manager at Baring, said in an April 25 telephone interview. “We are waiting to see what happens with the IMF and the political issues.” Egypt’s efforts to sign a deal with the IMF have been hurt by violence between supporters of the country’s new Islamist government and its opponents. That’s made it more difficult to implement IMF-backed changes after declines in the country’s main sources of income, such as tourism, choked the economy. Egypt’s benchmark EGX30 Index has dropped 4.9 percent this year after rising 51 percent in 2012. International investors are also concerned that a slumping local currency will diminish the value of their holdings, according to Wael Ziada, head of research at Egyptian investment bank EFG-Hermes Holding SAE. More»

In April which witnessed resumption of talks between Egypt authorities and the International Monetary Fund over long-awaited US$ 4.8 billion, the Egyptian Exchange has managed to post gains of EGP 633 million as the capital market has reached around EGP 355.5 billion by the end of April, compared to the end of last March of EGP 354.9 billion, representing a growth of 1.78%.The Egyptian Exchange’s indices reported remarkable increase during April. Through April - the main index, EGX30 climbed by 1.92% to end at the level of 5.196 points. For the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 surged by 1.66% to close at 449 points; while, the price index EGX100 pushed up by 1.14% to conclude at the level of 746 points. In April, EGX’s traded volume reached around 1.844 million securities worth around EGP 8.9 billion, exchanged through 325 thousand transactions. Noting that, through March the traded volume had reached 2.343 million securities worth EGP 27.5 billion, exchanged through 341 thousand transactions. Elsewhere, the traded volume for the EGX of SMEs – NILEX through April has amounted to 4.2 million securities worth EGP 9.9 billion, exchanged through 2.167 transactions. More»

Stocks traded on the Egyptian Exchange of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) – NILEX have ended Tuesday’s session mostly lower. This was after trading in 8 stocks; 4 declined, 2 advanced and 2 others steadied. The EGX will be shutting down on Wednesday on the occasion of Labor Day. Al-Moasher for Programming and Information Dissemination (AMPI)’s stock has led NILEX downwards as it sank by 2.59% to close at EGP 1.13. The stock also topped NILEX’s traded value as it reached EGP 112.858 thousand distributed to 99.488 thousand securities exchanged through 27 transactions. Univert for Food Industries (UNFO)’s stock also pushed down by 2.44% to conclude at EGP 0.80. BIG Trade and Investment (BIGP)’s stock inched down by 1.79% to close at EGP 1.10. Marseille Almasreia Alkhalegeya For Holding Investment (MAAL)’s stock fell by 1.50% to close at EGP 3.95. On the contrary, Egypt Intercontinental for the manufacture of granite and marble EGY-STON (MISR)’s stock soared by 4.85% to finish at EGP 3.89. Port Saied for Agricultural Development and Construction (PSAD)’s stock edged up by 2% to conclude at EGP 4.08. Meanwhile, the stocks which remained with no change on Tuesday were International Business Corporation For Trading and Agencies - IBC (IBCT) at EGP 7.02 and Utopia Real Estate Investment and Tourism (UTOP) at EGP 7.70. More»

Egyptian bourse is looking forward to establishing its own information center ‘Disaster Recovery’, said chief on Tuesday. Dr. Mohamed Omran, the Chairman of the Egyptian Exchange, stated that the EGX board members have approved founding bourse’s Disaster Recovery information.  The Egyptian bourse management is currently studying all the requirements necessary to establish the DR. Disaster recovery (DR) is the process, policies and procedures that are related to preparing for recovery or continuation of technology infrastructure which are vital to an organization after a natural or human-induced disaster. Disaster recovery is a subset of business continuity. While business continuity involves planning for keeping all aspects of a business functioning in the midst of disruptive events, disaster recovery focuses on the IT or technology systems that support business functions. More»

The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) has ended Tuesday’s session posting gains of EGP 561 billion coinciding with the announcement made by the Dutch Unit of Orascom Construction Industries S.A.E about reaching a final agreement between OCI and Egyptian Tax Authority to end a 10-month tax disputes and about receiving regulatory approval on OCI N.V.’s transaction. The capital market has reached to EGP 355.533 billion during Tuesday’s closing session. The EGX indices ended Tuesday in red notes driven by the regulatory approval on OCI N.V.’s offer to transfer the shares of Orascom Construction Industries (OCIC.CA), Egypt’s biggest publicly traded company, to NYSE Euronext Amsterdam. Egypt’s benchmark index EGX30 fell by 0.05% to close at 5196.48 p; while the EGX20, it also inched down by 0.28% to end at 5986.24 p. Meanwhile, the mid- and small-cap index, the EGX70 dropped by 0.20% to conclude at 448.78 p.  Price index EGX100 dipped by 0.28% to finish 745.68 p. More»