Egypt Bourse gains on a calm Mubarak trial and good company results
Egypt’s stock exchange edged up on Monday, as listed companies started posting their second quarter financial results. This was aided by a smooth running of ousted Hosni Mubarak’s trial earlier in the morning.
"The market started to pick up towards the end of session, when it became clear that the trial would flow smoothly without any negative repercussions," says Mostafa Badra, a capital markets expert.
The second session of the former president’s trial was aired live in the morning, with orderly proceedings, leaving very little chance of an outbreak of unrest to follow.
Market turnover started off weak at the beginning of the three-hour session, recovering only towards the end, adding some LE80 million in around half an hour to total LE305 million.
Turnover reached its lowest levels in more than 6 years in yesterday's session. which worried some analysts, showing the possibility of long term stagnation in the market.
The broader EGX70, which includes smaller and speculative stocks, witnessed a 0.64 per cent loss in value today.
Badra explained that the EGX70 decline could be explained by normal trader speculation and not by the companies' actual performance.
The EGX70 decline could be observed when stocks closed: out of 175 traded shares, 101 shares finished in red and only 55 gained.