Egypt’s stock recovers ahead of constitution referendum

Egypt’s stocks recorded over 1.19 billion U.S. dollars of gains Wednesday as the benchmark EGX30 rose by 2.83 percent and broader EGX70 by 3.99 percent, just a few days ahead of the country’s constitutional referendum slated for Saturday.“With yesterday’s slight gains and rising purchases we expected the stock to rise today, but we did not imagine that the rise today would be this much,” Islam Abdel-Aty, financial analyst, told Xinhua Wednesday.Abdel-Aty added that when a state of affairs continues for long, even if it is chaos and turmoil, the investors regard it as normal and so they continue trading normally until something new happens. “The result of the referendum will not be soon, and the stock market will not stop until then. It will just react then based on the result,” Abdel-Aty noted.The significant rise comes a day after massive nationwide protests for and against President Mohamed Morsi and the draft constitution ended up peacefully without clashes.The stock market in Egypt suffered a series of losses last week after bloody clashes between Morsi’s opponents and supporters killed several and injured hundreds, putting the IMF 4.8-billion-U. S. dollar rescuing loan to Egypt at risk.