Egypt’s Orascom Telecom (OT) suffered its largest decline for two weeks on Wednesday after Algeria hit the operator’s local unit Djezzy with a $230 million final tax demand for 2008 and 2009.
The benchmark EGX 30 fell 0.8 percent to 6,943 points.
"I’m not too upbeat about markets — flows are weak, as is turnover — funds could be selling off for year end and prices aren’t really attractive," said an Egypt-based analyst who asked not to be identified.
"There’s still this lethal ‘wait and see’ attitude and not much confidence in general. Medium to long-term investors seem to be sitting out the market."
Orascom Telecom fell 1.6 percent. It said it had already paid Algeria taxes for 2008 and 2009 and would take legal steps to challenge the "completely unfounded" reassessment. The latest demand is on top of previous Algerian back-tax claims of $600 million relating to Djezzy.
