Egyptian indexes dipped on Wednesday amid low trading volume on the first day of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, traders said. The North African country's benchmark index EGX 30 slid by 1.36 per cent, ending the day's trading at 6,373.43 points. The EGX 70 index, which measures 70 of the country's small and mid caps, fell by 1.32 per cent to 610.33 points. Volume hit LE645 million. Orascom Construction Industries, Egypt's largest builder by market value, plunged by 1.04 per cent, closing at LE257.71 ($45.2) per share. Orascom Telecom, the largest Arab mobile operator by subscribers, slipped by 1.56 per cent to LE5.05 per share. Commercial International Bank (CIB) has said its first-half net profit rose slightly to LE1.02 billion, hitting a record profit, according to Reuters. The bank, Egypt's biggest private lender by assets, reported a net profit of 1.01 billion pounds in the same period a year earlier. Meanwhile, the dollar fell close to 15-year lows versus the yen on Wednesday as steps taken by the Federal Reserve to revive a faltering US economy pushed US Treasury yields lower. But the dollar rose against other currencies as investors pared back their exposure to risk, pushing the US unit up one per cent against a basket of currencies as European shares fell 1.5 per cent. In a move to reinvigorate a weakening economic recovery, the Fed said on Wednesday it would use cash from maturing mortgage bonds it holds to buy more government debt to help pin down borrowing costs. The move strengthened expectations that US interest rates would stay at record lows, driving US two-year yields to a record low and narrowing the spread over Japanese two-year yields, which pushed the dollar down against the yen. At the same time, however, investors were also concerned by what the Fed's move said about a faltering economic recovery, denting global stocks and lifting the dollar 1 percent against the euro and higher-yielding Australian dollar. The US currency dropped below 85 yen for the first time since late November, bringing it within reach of a 15-year low of 84.82 yen, soon after US two-year Treasury yields hit a record low. "The fall in US yields is a barometer of the cyclical position of the US economy," said Adam Cole, currency strategist at RBC. "The market's reaction is that if the US economy is slowing materially it will not be in isolation and it has therefore responded by selling risk instead of selling the dollar, which is positive for the yen." Against a basket of currencies, however, the dollar gained one per cent to 81.613, its strongest since late July, as the euro lost 1.2 per cent to $1.3022 and the Australian dollar slid 1.2 per cent to $0.9022.
