Egypt Stocks Eye Bear Market as Dollar Squeeze Curbs Trading

The EGX 30 Index slumped 2.6 percent on Thursday, extending the worst start to a year since the Arab Spring revolt in 2011 as the average value of shares traded dwindled to a 16-month low. The gauge also crossed a technical threshold called the death cross this month, which some investors interpret as the harbinger of a further slump.

Equities have tumbled 17 percent since a seven-year high in February, just shy of the 20 percent threshold for a bear market, as foreign investors struggled to repatriate their cash amid a dollar shortage that prompted the reappearance of a black market on Cairo’s streets. The scarcity of greenbacks has persisted even after Egypt received $6 billion of aid from Gulf Arab allies last month.