Egypt Stocks Rise Slightly Despite State's Credit Downgrade

Egypt’s stocks have reversed their southern turn on Monday to gain, despite the country’s credit rating being cut by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) rating agency. S&P, the leading credit-ratings agency, decided to cut Egypt's long-term rating on Monday and said another cut was possible if political turbulence worsened, undermining the country's ability to make hard choices on public finances.

The benchmark EGX30 rose slightly by 0.2 per cent, recording 5,373 points as foreign investors preferred purchasing in the last sessions of the year to maintain their dollar liquidity in shares values, coinciding with the drop of the Egyptian pound against the dollar.

Rumours of Egyptian central bank governor Farouq El-Oqda's resignation had already affected the financial market, pushing the Egyptian pound to further slide, to stand at LE6.18 to the dollar. The broader index EGX70 rose by 0.3 per cent in a session that saw foreign investors become net-buyers by LE32 million.

The market heavyweight shares Orascom Construction Industries and Commercial International Bank were up by 0.6 and 0.03 per cent respectively. Property share Palm Hills Development slipped 0.2 per cent reaching the highest daily turnover worth some LE35.2 million out of the market total daily turnover of LE323 million. Orascom Telecom and Talaat Mostafa Group declined by 0.5 and 0.6 per cent respectively.