Egypt stocks fell on Sunday, in line with global markets and oil prices amid low turnover. Egypt's main index fell 1.36 percent to close at 7,651 points value of turnover of listed securities registered a modest EGP 310 million. "Global markets and oil were down over the weekend, which, coupled with the failure of the Beltone-CIB deal, which as expected, led to some negative sentiment in the market," Wafik Dawood, Portfolio Manager at Compass Capital, told Ahram Online. Beltone Financial Holding, a subsidiary of Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding (OTMT), had sought to acquire the shares owned by Egypt's largest private lender Commercial International Bank (CIB) of investment arm CI Capital in a EGP 924 million deal. However, the deal was nixed on Thursday after OTMT failed to obtain the necessary approvals in time. OTMT saw its share price plunge 5.71 percent to EGP 0.66 on Sunday. CIB, the index's largest listed stock, fell 2.38 percent to EGP 43.07. Beltone also announced on Sunday plans to convert up to a third of its share capital to Global Depositary Receipts (GDR's). It did not give a reason for the move, which awaits regulatory and final approval. "I would assume that this move reflects Beltone's aspirations to acquire international players," referring Beltone's bid to acquire 51 percent of New York-based brokerage firm Auerbach Grayson & Company, announced earlier this month. Beltone's share price inched down 0.36 percent to EGP 11.01 on Sunday. Investment bank EFG-Hermes bucked the downward trend, rising 1.85 percent to EGP 12.14, after it announced plans to distribute EGP 1.08 billion ($121.62 million) from the sale of a 40-percent stake in Credit Libanais to its shareholders in the form of cash and share buybacks. Landline-operator Telecom Egypt, was up 0.95 percent, closing at EGP 9.52, buoyed by indications that it will soon be in a position to obtain a mobile operator license along with 4G spectrum, said Dawood. Other losing blue chips included Global Telecom Holding, the second largest listed stock, which slid 1.59 percent to close at EGP 3.10. Real estate securities were down, including largest listed property developer TMG Holding, which fell 1 percent to EGP 5.97, and Emaar Misr for Development, which was down 1.63 percent to EGP 2.42 by market close. Egyptian investors were the net-buyers for the session, to the tune of EGP 35.5 million. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/222833.aspx
