Driven by a bearish sentiment, Egyptian stocks fell on Sunday, traders said. Local and Arab investors made net sell-offs worth LE12.7 million ($2.2 million) and LE4.6 million respectively. The North African country's benchmark index EGX 30 ended the day's trading at 6,725.28 points. The EGX 70 index, which measures 70 of the country's small and mid caps, added 1.3 per cent to 730.97 points. Volume hit LE781 million, according to the Egyptian Exchange. Orascom Construction Industries, Egypt's largest builder by market value, shed 0.56 per cent, closing at LE251.51 per share. Orascom Telecom, the largest Arab mobile operator by subscribers, rose by 1.14 per cent to LE5.32 per share. Citadel Capital reported on Saturday a consolidated net loss in the second quarter of LE95 million, compared with a net profit of LE11.9 million a year earlier, according to Reuters. The Egypt-based private equity firm's total operating loss in the three-month period was 12.2 million pounds, compared with a profit LE98.9 million a year earlier. Citadel controls $8.3 billion in investments spanning 14 countries and is looking to expand its investments in the Middle East and east Africa. On Friday, the S&P 500 and Dow fell for a second straight week on persistent concerns the recovery has tapered off. Even so, major indexes came off Friday's lows as some investors homed in on positive outlooks in the tech sector and used this week's M&A news as an excuse for late-day buying. The Nasdaq fared better than the other indexes to end a hair higher after positive forecasts from Marvell Technology Group Ltd and Intuit Inc drove their shares up. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 57.59 points, or 0.56 per cent, to 10,213.62. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was off 3.94 points, or 0.37 per cent, to 1,071.69. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.81 points, or 0.04 percent, to 2,179.76. For the week, the S&P 500 was down 0.7 percent, the Dow slipped 0.9 percent, while the Nasdaq gained 0.3 percent. It was the second week of declines for the S&P and the Dow. Technical support held around the 1,070 level after the S&P 500 fell below that before recovering. The level, which represents last week's low, held as support on Thursday as well. Investors did not embrace all tech shares. Hewlett-Packard Co was among the biggest drags on the Dow after several brokerages cut their price targets on the computer maker's shares due to concern about demand for tech products. HP fell 2.2 percent at $39.85. Thursday's gloomy jobs and regional manufacturing data remained in the forefront as investors debated how much the recovery could slow, while overall options action reflected cautious investor sentiment.
