The EGX30 posted its fifth straight day of losses yesterday as shares struggled to recover from a 3.8% drop on Sunday (the benchmark index’s sharpest decline since February 2016). Foreign investors led the selloff on moderate volumes that fell just shy of the trailing 90-day average as the EGX30 lost 0.8% by the close of session. Leading financial stocks continued to suffer as a result of last week’s Madbouly Cabinet decision to impose a new tax treatment for banks that would separately tax their earnings from government debt. The decline was also less pronounced following reports that the Federation of Egyptian Banks is working on a compromise with the government on the new standards, which could see the sector’s taxes increase by EGP 10 bn. A meeting is expected to take place at the end of the week. Both sides had agreed that the new standards would not be applied retroactively, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait told the domestic press. Here’s how select bank shares closed yesterday:

• ADIB: -5.0%
• CIB: -1.7%
• Al Baraka: -0.7%
• Crédit Agricole: 0.0%
• Faisal Islamic Bank: -1.9%
• Suez Canal Bank: -3.1%
• HDBK: -2.4%
• NBK: flat
• QNB: -2.0%

The EGX30 is now down just over 13% year-to-date.