Total number of listed companies on CASE increased in March 2003 to 1151 compared to 1150 in February 2003.
One new company was listed this month with total capitalization of LE 15 million.
Turnover
In March 2003, value traded of listed securities amounted to LE 757.92 million, of which shares represented 77.60%, bonds 22.35% and funds 0.01%. On the other hand, the OTC trading amounted to LE 192.35 million i.e. 20% of total trading (on- and off-exchange trading) which reached LE 950.26 million, a 25.05% decline compared to the month before, and a 54..03% decrease to March 2002.
Total volume traded (shares & bonds) for the month reached 55.34 million securities.
During March 2003, 70,918 transactions were concluded with an average of 3,377 trades per day, while the average daily turnover amounted to LE 45.25 million.
Over the first quarter of 2003, value traded amounted to LE 4,181.42 million, volume traded reached 173.67 million and the number of transactions amounted to 212,908.
Indices
CASE 30 Price, the official market index, gained 2.1% March to reach 563.53 points and witnessed a 15.3% increase on YoY.
However, the S&P/IFCG index witnessed a 3.5% decline in March, to close at 37.6 points on 31/3/2003, and a 15.4% decrease on a YoY basis.
Price Movements of Selected Shares
The ten most active stocks represented 66.00% of the total volume of shares traded and 65.08% of total value of shares traded for the month.
During the month of March, the top ten gainers, on the official CASE market, were (in descending order of price change) Arab Polvara Spinning & Weaving (+41%), Acrow Misr (+34%), Egypt Aluminum (+31%), El Masreyah Glass (+28%), El Shams Housing & Urbanization (+23%), Kafr El Zayat Pesticides (+20%), Orascom Construction Industries - OCI (+19%), Misr Beni Suef Cement (+16%), Engineering Industries - ICON (+14%) and Paints & Chemicals Industries - Pachin (+13%).
The top ten losers were (in ascending order of price change) Heliopolis Housing (-66%), Miraco Development & Trading (-33%), Technopak (-21%),International Electronics (-19%), Industrial & Engineering Projects (-19%), North Cairo Mills (-19%), Suez Canal Bank (-15%), T3A Pharmaceutical Group (-15%), United Arab Shipping (-13%) and Upper Egypt Contracting (-12%).
Market Capitalization
Total market capitalization of all securities amounted to LE 137.20 billion as of end of March 2003 compared to LE 127.66 billion in February 2003, representing a slight 7.47% increase. The bond capitalization recorded LE 5.59 billion for corporate bonds and LE 14.31 billion for government bonds at the end of March 2003.
Foreign Participation
In March, foreign investors participated with 17.67% of the total market value traded with net inflows of portfolio foreign investment totaling LE 7.40 million.
As for the first quarter of 2003, foreign investors participated with 17.03 %, while net inflows of portfolio foreign investment totaled LE 21.26 million.
