CAIRO: Egypt shares were mixed, with the index’s biggest firm, Orascom Construction Industries (OCI), gaining as it began a stock buy-back announced last month, and with other shares slipping as investors fretted about the health of the prime minister.
Essam Sharaf was hospitalized on Monday after his blood pressure dropped suddenly, delaying the swearing in of a new cabinet and adding to an uncertain political outlook.
Cabinet sources said the new government could be announced by the end of this week.
The benchmark index closed 0.04 percent lower at 5,142 points.
OCI gained 1.3 percent. The firm has finalized plans to buy back 440,000 shares via the bourse.
"This is why OCI is doing well today," said Mohamed Seddiek, Prime brokerage’s head of research.
"But other than that I do not know of any major thing happening to move the market. In general, today is like a regular trading session with nothing major going on," Seddiek said.
Sharaf’s illness and the subsequent postponement of the reshuffle had caused the index to fall on Monday and Tuesday as well. The reshuffle was in reaction to lengthy protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square demanding deeper and quicker reforms.
Talaat Moustafa Group (TMG) fell 2.6 percent, Orascom Telecom 2 percent and Palm Hills 1.8 percent.
Pioneers Holding, the most heavily traded stock, rises 1.6 percent. "We are trading sideways and this could remain until bad news drags us down or good news pulls us up," said Khaled Darwish, a trader in Cairo Capital Securities.
