Egypt's stock market inches up on first day of phase two of parliamentary elections

Sunday 22-11-2015 10:11 PM
Egypt's stock market inches up on first day of phase two of parliamentary elections

A trader watches his monitor at the Egyptian stock exchange in Cairo April 1, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

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CAIRO, Nov. 22 (Aswat Masriya) - The Egyptian stock market edged up on Sunday, the first day of the second and final phase of parliamentary elections, with the benchmark index EGX 30 rising by 0.59 percent.

The index for small and medium enterprises EGX 70 registered the highest surge, climbing by 1.06 percent, while the broader EGX 100 also went up by 0.45 percent. 

Egyptian and Arab investors made net purchases worth a combined EGP 4 million, while other foreign investors made net sales of EGP 774,000.

The Egyptian stock market took a heavy dip at the start of last week on the back of  the Paris attacks on Nov. 13 and the Kremlin's announcement that the Russian plane that crashed in the Sinai desert last month was downed in a "terrorist act". 

However, the market rebounded on the last two days of trading last week. 

Voters across 13 provinces continue to cast their ballots in Cairo, Qalyubia, Daqahliyah, Menoufia, Gharbia, Kafr el-Sheikh, Sharqiya, Damietta, Port Said, Ismailia, Suez, North Sinai and South Sinai. 

There is still no official announcement on the voter turnout so far but turnout was low in phase one. Aswat Masriya reporters stationed at various provinces say it was "weak" in the second phase as well.

The house elections mark the final phase of a "roadmap to democracy" which President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced to the nation in July 2013, following the military ouster of Egypt's first democratically-elected Islamist president Mohamed Mursi after protests against his rule.  

The Egyptian state has been struggling to attract foreign investments and hard currency inflows and hopes that the upcoming legislature will signal a period of stability that will encourage FDI.  

 

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