Cairo – Mubasher: The Egyptian Exchange’s indices collectively initiated Wednesday in the green zone amid Arab investors’ buying tendency after the Central Bank of Egypt kept the value of the Egyptian pound unchanged.
By 10:30am Cairo time, the main index EGX30 added 145 points, or 1.96%, to level up at 7,603 points.
The small and mid-cap EGX70 inched up 0.36% to 361 points.
Similarly, the broader index rose by 0.65% to 771.4 points and the equal-weighted index EGX50 opened 1.48% higher to 1,355 points.
Market turnover reached EGP 85 million after 29 million shares were traded in 2,800 transactions.
Arab investors were net buyers by EGP 5.7 million, while Egyptians and foreigners were net sellers by EGP 5.4 million and EGP 347,000 respectively.
Beltone topped the advancers by 9.9%, while Rakta Paper Manufacturing headed the losers with a 2.9% slide.
Earlier, Ayman Fouda, head of capital market committee at the African Economic Council, said the Egyptian Exchange is forecast to leave the red zone in early trading amid a buying appetite on EGX30 stocks as well as an upwardly flat performance for the small and mid-cap index due to profit-taking.
In case that the main index succeeds to hold above 7,500 points by the end of the session, it will re-target the level of 7,700 points, Fouda expected, adding that the small and mid-cap is facing resistance at the 362-363 area.
By the end of mid-week trading session, EGX came on a mixed note and erased part of its early losses. The benchmark fell 48.68 points, or 0.65%, to the mark of 7,457.5 points.
The Egyptian pound steadied at a cut-off price of 8.78 per dollar, unchanged from last week, at the official foreign currency auction that is regularly held on Tuesday.
