CAIRO: Shares of EFG-Hermes, Egypt s largest investment bank, dropped to their lowest level in three years on Sunday, helping drag down Egypt s benchmark index as part of a global stock sell-off.
Shares of EFG-Hermes, down about 70 percent this year, tumbled 7.68 percent to LE 22.01 ($3.94), while the benchmark CASE 30 index lost 6.79 percent to 4,564.18 points.
“Any company in investment banking is going to get hit, said Hashem Ghoneim, chief executive of El Nour Securities. It s the industry.
Shares of Commercial International Bank, Egypt s largest lender by market value, shed 10.45 percent to LE 27. Market heavyweight Orascom Construction Industries dipped 5.62 percent to LE 199.
Stock markets tumbled around the world on Friday, when Egypt s market is closed, as investors fearing a long and deep worldwide recession dumped risky assets.
Overall on Sunday, Egypt s widely watched Hermes index fell 7.46 percent to 411.77 points, while the broader CIBC index dropped 10.56 percent to 243.04 points.
Shares of Talaat Moustafa, Egypt s largest real estate developer by market value, tumbled 6.1 percent to LE 3.23. The company s chief financial officer said its profit should rise at least 30 percent this year.
The market is not trading on fundamentals, Ghoneim said. All of these companies are extremely oversold.
EFG-Hermes is trading at 5.54 times estimated 2008 earnings, compared to a global investment banking average of 11.70, according to Reuters data.
But regional mobile operator Orascom Telecom, the session s most heavily traded share by turnover, bucked the downward trend to rise 3.21 percent to LE 29.25 to close gap between its local and GDR shares.
