Cairo – Mubasher: The Egyptian Exchange's benchmark index (EGX30) had delivered in November the strongest performance since January 2005 thanks to the free flotation of Egyptian pound against US dollar as well as a bunch of investment decisions.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave the go-ahead to the three-year $12 billion loan and Egypt had already received the first tranche of $2.75 billion after liberalizing the exchange rate and partially cut subsidy on petroleum products.
The benchmark index recorded the highest performance in 142 months after leaping 3067 points or 36.58% to finish the month at 11,453 points compared with a closing mark of 8,386 points a month earlier.
The peak performance was attained at the mark of 11,787 points, while the bottom line was seen early in November at 8,386 points.
Market capitalization gained EGP 152.77 billion to close at EGP 566.195 billion versus EGP 413.425 billion in October.
The small and mid-cap EGX70 had risen to all-time high since its debut, surging 111.7 points (32.4%) to stay at 456.6 points compared with 344.9 points in the previous month.
In addition, the broader index EGX100 hits new all-time high as jumping 264.86 points or 32.61% to 1,077.1 points, while by the end of October the index stood at 812.24 points at close.
The equal-weighted index EGX50 was higher 528.3 points or 40.04% to 1,847.83 points from 1,319.53 points a month earlier.
Foreign traders were net buyers by EGP 3.37 billion, while nationals and Arabs were net sellers by EGP 3.1 billion and EGP 159 billion.
By category, institutions and individuals were respectively placed as net buyers and sellers at EGP 1.6 billion each.
Market analyst Hesham Hassan mainly attributed EGX30 unprecedented gaining streak during November to the liberalization of exchange rate, which pulled trading rate higher than EGP 1 billion over a number of sessions.
In general, the main index has been moving upwardly since mid-2016 as shooting the top resistance at 10,000, the highest mark in FY14/15 that has become a strong support area on the mid-term, the analyst added.
In case of steadying above 12,000 points, the index is forecast to see new price levels for stocks on the long-run that could be similar to pre-2008 quotes, Hassan concluded.
