Cairo – Mubasher: The Egyptian Exchange's (EGX) indices saw varying performance during the week ended 18 August amid strong selling by institutions.
The EGX30 index shed 0.72% during the week to close at 8,317 points, while the EGX70 grew 0.49% to 365 points. The EGX100 added 0.51% to close at 811 points.
Commenting on the EGX's performance this week, Sameh Gharib, head of technical analysis at Roots Stock Brokerage House, said that the EGX opened the week up, reaching 8,481 points, but owing to the strong resistance at that level and to selling, the market rebounded downwards.
Support is currently at 8,200 points and 7,900 points if the market retreats, the analyst said, noting that if the EGX passes 8,500 points, it will target the level of 8,750 points.
Total turnover this week reached EGP 6.2 billion ($700 million) after 1.194 billion shares changed hands through 113,000 transactions against a turnover of EGP 4.8 billion ($540 million) and 2 billion shares traded through 126,000 transactions last week.
The real estate sector was the most active in terms of turnover with EGP 721 million, followed by telecommunications with EGP 536.8 million.
Egyptian trading accounted for around 83.67% of total trading this week, while foreign non-Arab investors accounted for 12.43% and Arabs made up 3.90% of trading.
Foreign non-Arab investors' net buying amounted to EGP 100.70 million this week, while Arab buying netted EGP 64.16 million.
Institutional selling netted EGP 129.55 million this week, while trading accounted for 66.38% of EGX trading, while retail investors represented 33.62% of total trades.
The analyst said he expected the fluctuation in the Egyptian market to continue next week as the market is in need of strong buying activity to be able to pass the level of 8,500 points.
Market capitalisation fell by EGP 2 billion ($230 million) during the week to settle at EGP 416.7 billion ($46.92 billion) compared to last week's closing of EGP 418.6 billion ($47.13 billion).
