Egyptian bourse quiet in pre-holiday lull

CAIRO: Egyptian share indexes were barely changed on Sunday after a day of quiet trade as foreign investors began their holidays and local and Arab investors adjusted their portfolios ahead of their own holiday period, traders said. It s quiet — all foreign institutions started their holidays on Saturday, and we will have (the Muslim feast of) Eid al-Adha and the New Year next week, so I don t think we re going to find much activity on the market in the next ten days, said Hashem Ghoneim of El Nour Securities. Traders said local investors would continue to sell stock as Egypt approaches a season of Islamic and Coptic Christian holidays, as well as the New Year. Local investors accounted for 62.2 percent of all trades on the stock market on Sunday, being the highest net sellers at 98 million Egyptian pounds ($17 million), while foreign investors only accounted for 5.5 percent of all trades. Arab investors were the largest net buyers at 77 million pounds and had 32.3 percent of all trades in the market. Alexandria Spinning and Weaving (Spinalex) lost 5 percent to 135.66 pounds for the fourth session in a row since El Nasr Clothes and Textiles (Kabo) said it wanted to sell 10 percent of the company to reduce its holdings. Traders said the stock, which has quadrupled in value this year, was due for a correction. Sixth of October Development and Investment (SODIC) trimmed gains in its last session to fall 5 percent to 134 pounds, which traders said was due to selling pressure on rumours that shares from a rights issue will start trading on the exchange on Monday. Investors had bought the rights issue shares at 100 pounds each. The Hermes index edged up 0.07 percent to close at 59,843.11 and the well-watched Case 30 index rose 0.11 percent to 6,817.58. The broader CIBC-100 gained by only 0.06 percent to close at 286.11 points. ($1=5.71 Egyptian pounds)