Cairo – Mubasher: The Egyptian Exchange’s (EGX) indices declined collectively in Monday’s early trading after the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) decision to raise interest rates by 200 basis points on Sunday, pressured by a selling activity by Egyptian and Arab investors.

During the meeting of the CBE’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), the bank increased its overnight deposit rate to 16.75% from 14.75% and its overnight lending rate to 17.75% from 15.75%.

By 10:10 am Cairo time, the benchmark EGX30 index dropped 1.82% or 236 points to the level of 12,739 points.

The EGX70, EGX100, and EGX50 indices also fell by 0.71%, 0.90%, and 2.19%, respectively.

Turnover amounted to EGP 140.2 million, as trading volume reached 49.4 million shares

Egyptian and Arab investors were net sellers by EGP 97.4 million and EGP 11.8 million, respectively, while foreign investors were net buyers by EGP 109.2 million.

Cairo Oils declined 8.2%, Ezz Steel shrank 6.5%, Amer retreated 6.25%, and Porto fell 6.25%.

The Commercial International Bank – Egypt (CIB) decreased 1.1% to EGP 76.2.