Cairo, Jan 21 (Aswat Masriya) – The Egyptian stock exchange continued its decline in response to falling oil prices, with the main index EGX30 dropping by 1 per cent and closing off at 5,713 points at the end of Thursday’s session.

The market managed to minimize losses made in early trade on Thursday, with EGX30 dropping by 1.5 per cent mid-session.

The main index retreated by 7.9 per cent overall throughout the five sessions of the week.

Meanwhile, the EGX70 index for small and medium shares rose by 0.23 per cent and the broader index EGX100 rose by 0.06 per cent.

Egyptian and Arab exchanges recorded net purchases worth EGP 46 million and EGP 14 million respectively, while sales dominated foreign exchanges with a value of EGP 61 million.

The benchmark Brent Crude prices fell by 30 cents on Thursday to reach $27.58 per barrel, after it had reached its lowest decline since 2003 during the previous session, Reuters reported. 

Arab and global markets have been negatively affected amid fears of global economic decline and a slump in oil prices.

Gulf markets continued their decline Thursday with Dubai’s stock market retreating by 0.64 per cent, Abu Dhabi’s by 0.81 per cent, Kuwait’s by 0.78 per cent, Qatar’s by 1.21 per cent and finally the Saudi’s by 0.04 per cent.

Meanwhile, European markets recovered earlier losses, with the British market’s index FTSE100 recording a rise of 0.36 per cent, the German’s GDAXI recording a 0.56 per cent increase and the French FCHI rising by 0.59 per cent at the end of Thursday’s session.

The benchmark index rose by 2.6 per cent on Tuesday and 3.1 per cent on Monday, before declining again on Wednesday by 5.2 per cent.  

Egypt’s bourse had seen a rise in Monday’s and Tuesday’s sessions after incurring sharp declines for seven consecutive sessions.