Cairo, Jan 20 (Aswat Masirya) - The Egyptian stock exchange has returned to the sharp declines that it began the week off with as its main index EGX30 fell by about 5.2 per cent on Wednesday.

The EGX70 index for small and medium shares fell by approximately 2.18 per cent and the EGX100, the broader index fell, by 2.2 per cent.

Arab and Egyptian exchanges recorded more purchases while foreign exchanges dominated sales.

Ahmed Zakaria, a director of customer accounts in the financial company Okaz, said that the market suffered “shock” today after the decline in international oil prices.

The stock market recorded strong increases in the two previous sessions with the rises in Gulf stocks, and after the Central Bank of Egypt released a statement saying they will consider offering shares in two state banks to increase their capital on the stock exchange.

Egypt’s bourse had seen a rise in the previous two sessions after incurring sharp declines for seven consecutive sessions.

The benchmark index rose by 2.6 per cent on Tuesday and 3.1 per cent on Monday.

The international financial and commodity market impacted Egypt's stock last week, where the main index slumped by 15.4 per cent due to the drop in oil prices, the lifting of economic sanctions on Iran and the slowing growth in China.

Oil prices significantly tumbled by more than 6 per cent, driving the benchmark Brent Crude prices to retreat below $ 29 per barrel for the first time since February 2004.