CAIRO - Egyptian stocks ended mixed on Tuesday, while Arab buying weighed, traders said. The country's benchmark index EGX 30 fell by 0.6 per cent to 5,144.27 points, they added.
But the broader indexes EGX 70 and EGX 100 were in the black, gaining 1.48 and 1.96 per cent to 632.74 and 957.48 points respectively. Locals and Arabs made net purchases worth LE9.2 million ($1.5 million) and LE20.6 million respectively, according to Bourse data. Non-Arab investors made net sell-offs worth LE29.8 million. Volume totalled LE552.7 million, according to Bourse data. Egypt's heavyweight Commercial International Bank (CIB) slipped by 0.41 per cent to LE27.02 per share. EFG-Hermes, the country's biggest investment bank by market value, shed 2.75 per cent to LE19.8 per share. Investment bank Pioneers Holding added 0.62 per cent to LE4.87 per share. Orascom Construction Industries was nearly flat at LE266.52 per share. Orascom Telecom, the largest Arab mobile operator by subscribers, shed 0.5 per cent LE3.95 per share. Mobinil fell by 0.6 per cent to LE110.74 per share. Meanwhile, world stocks clawed back some recent losses and the euro steadied as investors paused from selling riskier assets in the face of the euro zone debt crisis and worries about Washington's debt ceiling fight, according to Reuters. Gold, however, continued to attract safe-haven investment flows, rising for the sixth session in a row to around $1,607 an ounce. Italian and Spanish bonds, now in the maelstrom as euro zone debt problems spread, firmed slightly after 10-year yields vaulted six per cent. Investors were focusing on a euro zone summit to be held on Thursday, hoping it will complete a second bailout for Greece in an attempt to stop the sovereign debt crisis from seriously infecting larger countries, notably Italy and Spain. World stocks as measured by MSCI were up 0.4 per cent and still have gains of around 1.25 per cent for the year despite a plethora of financial, political and natural crises from Japan to Europe, the United States and North Africa.
