EGX30 jumps 2.83% to 50,650 as the Egyptian Exchange gains about EGP 99 billion in a day

All indices higher

The gains were broad. The EGX30 rose 2.83% to 50,650.18 points, the EGX30 capped-weight index added 2.91% to 62,624 points, and the EGX30 total-return index also rose 2.83%, to 23,634 points. Smaller companies did even better: the EGX70 equal-weight index climbed 3.02% to 17,151.55 points and the broader EGX100 equal-weight index gained 2.98% to 23,011.03 points. Of the 223 shares traded, 197 rose, 16 fell and 10 were unchanged.

Foreign and Arab buying, Egyptian selling

The rally was driven by institutional buying from abroad. Foreign investors were net buyers of Egyptian shares worth EGP 336.5 million and Arab investors net buyers of EGP 50 million, while Egyptian investors were net sellers of about EGP 386.8 million. Egyptians still accounted for the bulk of trading at 80.62% of turnover, against 13.37% for foreigners and 6.01% for Arabs. The session’s biggest gainers included Odin fund units, up 20% to EGP 7.32, and Arab Company for Land Reclamation, up 20% to EGP 303.42, while Catalyst Partners Middle East led the decliners, down 4.71% to EGP 36.20.

Why the session mattered

Wednesday’s close completed a sharp two-day turnaround. The market had fallen on Monday 2 November, when the EGX30 slipped 0.70% to 48,403 points on the first trading day of Banque du Caire shares, leaving the benchmark about 8.4% below its 21 October close. Two sessions later it was back above 50,000, with market capitalisation approaching EGP 4 trillion. The test now is whether the foreign institutional buying that powered the rebound keeps coming in Thursday’s session and beyond, and whether the gains spread past the large caps that led Wednesday’s advance.