Egypt Stocks: Sideways trend hits indices

 

Egypt Stocks: Sideways trend hits indices

 

By Ahmed Kamel

A sideways trend is expected to dominate the local shares in the coming weeks as foreign funds prepare for Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays. Non-Arab selloffs weakened a bullish sentiment, led by Arab investors, last week.

The EGX30 index may firm above 10,800 points this week.  

The November dividends of listed companies posted a seven-month high at LE3.5 billion ($224.3 million), the Egyptian Exchange said in its weekly report.

The dividends totaled LE13.5 billion in April, the highest this year. The dividends have taken a zigzag trend since April, falling to LE487 million in May. In June, the listed companies distributed dividends worth LE299 million, according to the report.

The dividends stood at LE2.7 billion, LE433 million and LE135 million in July, August and September, respectively, the report said. In October, the listed companies distributed LE1.7 billion in dividends.

Meanwhile, the global depository receipts (GDRs) of Commercial International Bank and Amer Group increased to 136.561 million and 231.010 million respectively, the report said.

The GDRs of EFG Hermes inched up to 185.819 million.

For the second week in a row, the Egyptian shares were mixed last week. The EGX30 index added 0.76 per cent to 10,980.96 points. However, the EGX70 EWI slipped 0.08 per cent to 2,008.7 points.

The EGX100 EWI rose by 0.31 per cent to 2,946.85 points.

Volume fell to LE12.3 billion from LE16.4 billion the previous week.

The market capitalization added LE7.2 billion, or 1.1per cent, to LE636.4 billion, market data showed.

Locals, Arabs and non-Arabs accounted for 82.7, 7 and 10.3 per cent of trades respectively, bourse data showed.

Arabs were net buyers of LE107.7 million last week, while non-Arab investors were sellers of LE370.6 million.

Arab and non-Arab investors have been net sellers of LE927.6 million and LE14.3 billion since the beginning of the year, bourse data showed.