CAIRO: Egyptian markets ended slightly lower on Sunday, as many big cap stocks slipped and a lack of global trading muted price movements in low-volume trade.
The benchmark CASE 30 index ended down 0.41 percent at 4,302.03 points, while the rival Hermes index trimmed 0.77 percent to 403.14 points.
The broader CIBC index lost 0.99 percent to 279.8 points.
It is mainly retail investors taking some profits and trimming losses, said Mohamed Ebeid from EFG-Hermes.
Almost 80 percent of trading was conducted by Egyptians, stock exchange data showed.
Ebeid said foreign institutions will likely have a reduced role in the market in coming weeks as they balance books ahead of holidays, and locals will eye fourth-quarter results.
Everyone is monitoring very closely to see what Q4 is going to look like, he said. I think investors are very cautious as we speak.
Most financial firms lost ground, with EFG-Hermes losing 3.28 percent to LE 17.38 ($3.14) after announcing it had completed the buyback of 5 million shares, some 1.3 percent of the firm s equity.
Many Egyptian companies have taken advantage of recent sharp declines in stock values to buy back shares from the market.
Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) said it plans to buy back up to 2 million of its shares from the market between Dec. 14 and Jan. 13, and its shares closed 1.45 percent higher at LE 117.70 a share.
OCI shares have lost 76 percent of their value after peaking at LE 485 in April.
Telecom firms gave up gains from last week, with Orascom Telecom down 3.15 percent to LE 26.71, Mobinil shedding 4.44 percent to LE 130.15 and Telecom Egypt losing 7.25 percent to LE 15.10.
El Sewedy Cables shares gained 1.98 percent to LE 73.00, after newspaper reports the firm had formed a consortium with a German company to produce towers and turbines for wind power plants.
