By: Heba El-Kordy
Cairo – Mubasher: The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) ended February in green territory, boosted by the decision to reduce interest rates by 1%.
The benchmark EGX30 index levelled up 677 points, or 4.79% to 14,803 points, whereas the EGX70 index added 5.2% to 719.6 points, the EGX100 increased by 5.17% to 1,812 points and the equal-weighted EGX50 index went up 6.1% to 2,426.13 points during the second month of 2019.
Over the month, market capitalisation grew EGP 29.9 billion ($1.70 billion) to EGP 823.33 billion ($46.92 billion).
The heavyweight Commercial International Bank’s (CIB) stock added 5.01% to EGP 69.75 in February, with a turnover of EGP 2.008 billion.
Most analysts noted that cutting interest rates supported the upward trend of EGX, raising the benchmark EGX30 index near 16,000 points.
Weekly mixed performance
On a weekly basis, the benchmark EGX30 index tumbled 2.26% to 14,803 points, while the EGX70 index inched up 0.34% to 719.64 points.
Meanwhile, market capitalisation declined EGP 12.9 billion to EGP 823.3 billion over the week ended 28 February, from EGP 836.26 billion a week earlier.
Earlier this week, Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) has decided to apply the short-selling mechanism in order to attract more investments to the Egyptian market.
Analysts have different opinions about the impact of implementing short-selling mechanism on the performance of the EGX, affirming that liquidity has increased since then.
Translated by: Zeinab Adel
