CAIRO - Egyptian indexes were in the red on Monday as foreign investors were driven by profit-taking, traders said. The country's benchmark index EGX 30 slipped by 0.84 per cent to 5,580.96 points.
Locals made net purchses worth LE48.9 million ($8.2 million), according to Bourse data. Arab and non-Arab investors made net sell-offs worth LE14.4 million and LE34.5 million respectively. The broader index EGX 70, which measures 70 of the country's mid caps, fell by 0.85 per cent to 654.2 points. The EGX 100 slid by 0.91 per cent to 1,010.38 points. Volume exceeded LE680.6 million, according to Bourse data. Egypt's heavyweight Commercial International Bank (CIB) fell by 0.54 per cent to LE31.1 per share. EFG-Hermes, the country's biggest investment bank by market value, shed one per cent to LE21.98 per share. Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) slipped by 0.7 per cent to LE277.93 per share. Orascom Telecom, the largest Arab mobile operator by subscribers, added 0.7 per cent LE4.29 per share. Meanwhile, world stocks, the euro and crude prices fell and bond yields in heavily indebted euro zone countries jumped after the region's finance ministers delayed a final decision on extending emergency loans to Greece, according to Reuters. Eurozone finance ministers have postponed a final decision on extending a further 12 billion euros in emergency loans to Greece, ratcheting up pressure on Athens to first impose harsh austerity measures. They said they expected the money, the next tranche in last year's 110 billion euro bailout package extended by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, to be paid by mid-July. The euro was down 0.6 per cent at $1.4222, edging back in the direction of a three-week low of $1.4073 hit last Thursday on trading platform EBS, and down 0.8 per cent to 1.2041 Swiss francs. World stocks measured by the MSCI All-Country World Index fell 0.6 per cent after a three-week decline. The benchmark is down 1.1 per cent this year. UBS strategists said in a note that investors should remain "underweight" global equities and cyclical commodities, even though risk asset valuations were "undemanding," until euro zone debt uncertainty subsided and U.S. growth improved. The deepening political crisis in Greece has done nothing to change UBS's view that a default was likely, they said.
