CAIRO: Egyptian stocks ended mixed in low volume on Thursday in advance of the Muslim feast of Eid Al-Fitr, which will disrupt trading most of next week. Out of the 10 most heavily traded stocks, seven advanced and three declined. The two most widely watched indexes declined by very small margins. Media Production City unexpectedly gained 10.4 percent to close at LE 11.75 ($2.05) a share but brokers said they did not know what was behind the move.
The market has been really stagnant the last few days. People don t want to build up positions and retail investors want to cash out before the holidays, said Mohamed Radwan of Delta Securities. The market has been flat before the long weekend but fundamentally it s healthy and looking good. It should pick up after the Eid, added Hashem Ghoneim of El-Nour Securities. Egyptian banks will close for the first two days of the Eid, which is expected to start on either Monday or Tuesday, depending on the sighting of the new moon, and the stock exchange usually follows the banks example. The most heavily traded stock, as on many days, was investment bank EFG Hermes, which set the tone by closing 0.02 percent down at LE 41.95. The well-watched Case 30 index ended 0.2 percent lower at 6,368.74 points, the Hermes index closed 0.01 percent down at 56,846.96 points and the broader CIBC 100 index ended 0.7 percent higher at 261.30 points.
