EGX100 Drops 10%.. Egyptian Stock Market Halts Trading Temporarily

The Egyptian Exchange management decided to halt trading for half an hour following a sharp, broad-based decline across all its indices. The Egyptian stock market indices deepened their losses during the mid-session of today’s trading, coinciding with the continued rise of the US dollar to new record highs against the Egyptian pound, as local markets face pressures linked to exchange rate volatility and rising energy costs.

Trading activity reflected clear selling pressure on the market, with shares of 205 companies declining, while only a limited number of stocks rose, and shares of 12 companies remained unchanged. The total market capitalization of listed shares contracted to approximately 3.69 trillion Egyptian pounds, equivalent to about $67.09 billion, based on an exchange rate of roughly 55 pounds per dollar.