CAIRO: The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) plunged again at the close of Tuesday’s session, amid investors’ anticipation of a third devaluation of the pound this year.
On Monday, Investment Minister Ashraf Salman said devaluation of the Egyptian pound will be ‘inevitable’ in the coming period to cope with China’s yuan depreciation in August.
“The Egyptian pound’s depreciation is not a choice,” Salman said during the 20th Euromoney conference held in Cairo Monday.
Selling pressures from local and foreign institutions weighed on Egypt’s benchmark index EGX30, which tumbled 3.38 percent to 6,924 points on Tuesday, down from 7,167 points on Monday.
Similarly, the small and mid-cap index EGX70 plummeted 3.49 percent to end at 374.11 points, compared to 387.63 points in its last session.
The broader index EGX100 also dropped 2.61 percent to close at 811.65 points, after 833.4 points on Monday.
Market capitalization lost around 9.1 billion EGP ($1.16 billion,) registering 434.8 billion EGP, compared to 443.9 billion EGP.