Profit-taking in telecoms pushes bourse down

CAIRO: Profit-taking in Egypt s telecom sector sent Egyptian shares down on Tuesday as retail investors sold stocks after a bullish run last week over Telecom Egypt s deal to raise its stake in Vodafone Egypt. The market has been doing very well in the last week. It was gaining every day, especially Telecom Egypt, so now it is time for some profit-taking, one Cairo-based trader said. Some other investors panicked when they saw the market sliding. This is a typical retail mentality, the trader added. The benchmark Hermes Index dropped 2.16 percent to close at 56,202.53 points, and the well-watched Case 30 index was 2.4 percent down at 6,343.51 points. The broader CIBC-100 index fell 0.7 percent to 261.44 points. Shares in Telecom Egypt, the country s only fixed-line operator, skidded 6.1 percent to LE 14.90 ($2.60), while Vodafone Egypt s shares fell 1.8 percent to LE 94. Telecom Egypt said on Monday it had agreed on deals to increase its stake in Vodafone Egypt, one of two current mobile phone operators in the Arab country, by close to 23.5 percent, bringing its total stake to nearly 49 percent. Shares in Raya were 5.4 percent down at LE 14.70 per share. Vodafone Egypt on Tuesday signed a previously announced deal to purchase a 51 percent stake of Raya s telecom subsidiary for LE 104 million. The market already knows about Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and Raya. We have this news so the market is quiet, said Angus Blair, head of research at Trust Group for Securities. Shares in mobile operator Mobinil dropped by 4.6 percent to LE 161.11. Profit-taking also hit shares in Sixth of October Development and Investment (SODIC), the Cairo-based trader said. The stock reversed the gains it made in the last four trading sessions to close 5 percent down at LE 123.93 a share.