Market Report: Egypt stocks down 1.7 per cent on Orascom profits dip

Exchange sees across-the-board losses as investors move to limit their exposure ahead of Saturday's election

Egyptian stocks continued their downward slide on Monday as disappointing profits for one of the country's major firms prompted sell-offs on a market already hobbled by fears over mid-June's divisive presidential runoff.
The benchmark EGX30 plunged 1.73 per cent to close out the session at 4,394 points, its lowest level since January this year.
From the day's 169 listed stocks, 131 lost value and just 22 gained.
"The market has dropped to very low levels and it's driving many investors to try and limit their losses," Ashraf Abdel-Aziz, head of institutions sales at Arabeya Online Securities, told Ahram Online.
"As investors exit their positions, they are triggering even further drops in stock prices."
Egyptian voters will go to the polls on 16-17 June to choose between a Muslim Brotherhood candidate and an ex-prime minister who served under ousted president Hosni Mubarak.
The runup to the second round of elections has been marked by intense debates between supporters of the two candidates, as well as deep unease from the more than 50 per cent of Egyptian voters who did not cast initial ballots for them.
Market turnover on Monday was a modest LE167.9 million ($27.8m) but a clear improvement on the day before when it plummeted to LE80 million -- the lightest trade in at least a decade.
"The extremely low turnover on Sunday sends a message that a recovery is not yet at hand," said Abdel-Aziz.
Egypt's Orascom Construction (OCI) was hit by disappointing profit news, its shares finishing down 1.51 per cent.
The country's largest-listed firm reported a 54 per cent fall in first-quarter net income on Monday, reflecting the sale of a stake in a US grains merchant as well as lower sales volumes and fertiliser prices.
Its performance was mirrored by other heavyweights on the main index. EFG-Hermes -- which saw a sixth of the day's total trade -- lost 5.12 per cent. Ezz Steel and the Talaat Moustafa Group plunged 4.23 and 3.34 per cent, respectively.
"Such big, solid firms were a relatively safe vessel for some investors," said Abdel-Aziz. "But not anymore."
Orascom Telecom Media and Technology, one of the market-movers in the opening months of the year, also took losses. It finished the day down a further 3.28 per cent.
"It is a classic case of investors stopping their losses when the market has a bleak perspective," explained Abdel-Aziz.
"It seems that LE1.22 per share was a major support point for OTMT. When the share dropped further, a lot of investors started to sell."
Egyptians were the day's only net-buyers, scooping up LE16.18 million more in stocks than they sold. Non-Arab foreigners continued their selling streak, offloading a net LE11.92 million.