By: Heba El-Kordy

Cairo – Mubasher: The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) is likely to maintain the sideways-to-declining trend over the coming period until it sees new catalysts, analysts told Mubasher.

The EGX is still stable above 15,400 points, which represents the long-term upward trend line formed since November 2016, branch manager at Mubasher Financial Services (MFS) Safwat Abdel Naeem said.

Abdel Naeem expected the correction movement to end and the benchmark EGX30 index break above 15,400 points and rebound to test 15,800 points, which would boost the EGX, attract Egyptian institutional investments, and push up trading volume.

Moreover, Saeed El-Feki, CEO of Osool ESB Securities Brokerage, said that the EGX30 index may test support at 15,200 points if it breaks support at 15,500 points.

The EGX is likely to move in a downward direction as the EGX30 moved near 18,500 points during the first quarter of 2018, followed by seeing a wave of profit-taking, in addition to the US interest rates hikes and the US-China trade tensions, which negatively impact stocks markets in general, El-Feki highlighted.

Lack of market-boosting catalysts and the absence of new segments of investors have also attributed to the bearish trend, he added.

He projected the sideways-to-declining trend to carry on over the coming period until new catalysts boost the market.

For his part, customer relations manager at Arabeya Online Michael Mamdouh Naguib said that the EGX30 index has support at 15,300 and 15,000 points, while it has resistance at 15.780, 16,000, and 16,100 points.

On the other hand, the small- and mid-cap EGX70 index is nearing correction at 750 points, Naguib added, pointing out that the index closed last week at 752 points in an attempt to rebound after performing negatively over the past months.

Translated by: Mai Ezz El-Din