Egyptian indexes fell on Sunday as local and Arab investors were driven by a profit-taking sentiment, traders said. The local market was affected by losses in Wall Street on Friday, they added. The North African country's main index EGX 30 shed 18 points, or 0.29 per cent, ending the day's trading at 6,388.77 points. The EGX 70 index, which measures 70 of the country's small and mid caps, slipped by 0.26 per cent to 609.07 points. Egyptian and Arab investors made net sell-offs worth LE23 million ($4 million) and LE27 million respectievly, according to the Egyptian Exchange. Orascom Telecom, the largest Arab mobile operator by subscribers, fell by 1.34 per cent to LE5.15 ($0.9) per share. Orascom Construction Industries, Egypt's largest builder by market value, slipped by 0.64 per cent, closing at LE252.38 per share. Volume hit LE888 million, according to the Egyptian Exchange. On Friday, US stocks fell after government data showed a larger-than-expected drop in July payrolls, giving investors a stark reminder the economic recovery remains slow, Reuters reported. Stocks had been rising over the past five weeks, largely on the back of solid corporate earnings. The S&P 500 is still up 9.7 per cent from its closing low for the year set July 2. The US economy lost 131,000 jobs in July -- more than twice the decline of 65,000 that economists forecast in a Reuters poll. And the closely watched private employment number rose less than expected. Of the 443 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings to date, 75 percent have reported earnings above analysts' expectations, with only 9 percent missing estimates. Consumer stocks ranked among the worst performers as the monthly jobs report highlighted worries about consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of US economic activity. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 21.42 points, or 0.20 percent, to 10,653.56. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index shed 4.17 points, or 0.37 per cent, to 1,121.64. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 4.59 points, or 0.20 per cent, to 2,288.47. For the week, the Dow and the S&P 500 each rose 1.8 per cent, while the Nasdaq advanced 1.5 per cent. In late afternoon trading, stocks sharply pared back losses that had driven the major indexes down one per cent or more to their session lows. Big swings in stocks are more common on days with light volume, On Friday, only about 7.17 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, below last year's estimated daily average of 9.65 billion. After the closing bell, Hewlett-Packard Co Chief Executive Mark Hurd resigned following an investigation of sexual harassment, the world's top computer maker said. Shares of HP, a Dow component, tumbled 9 percent to $42.14 in extended-hours trading. The stock was initially halted after the news.
