By Abd Elkader Ramadan 

CAIRO, Jul 6 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt’s stock market took a dive on Monday, with the benchmark index EGX 30 dropping by 4.23 percent at closing reaching 7870 points, its lowest in over a year. 

The broader EGX 70 ended with a 3.08 retreat. The Egyptian stock exchange suspended the trading of 50 stocks for half an hour after they dropped by more than 5 percent.   

Ayman Hamed, the managing director of the brokerage sector of Naeem Brokerage said the retreat is driven by fears that the Greece crisis will trigger a new global financial crisis and that more countries will tumble, like Spain and Portugal.

The Greece crisis will be problematic for its lenders and Hamed believes that it will reduce the availability of the cash inflows that Egypt is trying to attract.

Egypt is trying to attract investments to repair an economy battered by years of political turmoil.  

Ahmed Zakaria, the director of customer accounts at Okaz Securities Brokerage also cited the Greek debt crisis, adding that the Egyptian market is typically quick to react to global crises.

Both Hamed and said Emaar Misr’s stock is the other reason for the stock market’s dive.

Emaar Misr, the Egyptian subsidiary of the Dubai-based property developer Emaar, listed in the Egyptian stock market on Sunday but was off to a rough start.

On Sunday, Emaar Misr’s stocks dropped by 1.3 percent, after initially soaring by 7 percent at the start of trading. On Monday, Emaar Misr dropped by 9.9 percent at closing.

Zakaria believes that investors were shocked at Emaar Misr’s performance and that they were driven to sell the stock, out of fear that their money will be locked up in it.

Investors had had high hopes on the stock but Hamed believes that the timing of listing, coinciding with the Greece crisis, and the circumstances of Egypt’s market did not help Emaar Misr.

Already one year into his rule, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s administration has been pouring efforts into attempting to improve the country’s economic condition.

Egypt faces challenges on both the political and the economic fronts.