The sideways trend of the last four trading weeks continues in the market. Wael Gamal reports Egyptian stocks reversed direction in the early trading of the week. Prices went down on Sunday as a result of sellings to build up cash positions ahead of the expected petrochemicals initial public offering or taking profits in small-cap firms from its previous week rise. The benchmark Hermes index slipped 0.8 per cent, to 36,344.10 points on Sunday while the broader CIBC index was down by 1.5 per cent, to 134.61 points while the CASE 30 index lost 0.74 per cent to settle at 4179.11 points. Orascom Hotels and Development, which rose in the previous session leading the market, slipped 5.8 per cent to last trade at LE32.92. Investors sold shares ahead of the expected IPO in Sidi Krir Petrochemicals (SIDPEC), which the government is expected to launch soon. Last week witnessed a slightly upward trend following the previous aggressive decline of 6.8 per cent. CASE 30 gained two per cent to close at 4,210 points on Thursday. The official stock market weekly report said that while awaiting the referendum results on the constitutional changes there was relatively slow activity throughout the week. The building materials and construction sector topped the market for the second week in a row with a volume traded of 11.1 million shares and a value traded of LE415 million. This was mainly attributed to the heavy activity of El Ezz Steel Rebars and ASEC for Cement, which together accounted for 50 per cent of the total volume traded made by the sector with 6.2 million shares exchanging hands. Moreover, Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) ranked second in terms of value traded after Misr America International Bank -- which was acquired by Arab African International Bank this week -- accounted for more than 37 per cent of the total value traded made by the sector, following the announcement of its solid 2004 results, realising more than a LE1.1 billion net profit, double what was achieved the year before. The continuation of the sideways trend came despite the announcement of important corporate news. Investors were apparently worried by the political situation and waited for some encouraging economic news. Some important news had a negative impact. In the case of Orascom Telecom (OT), the market heavyweight fell during last week's transactions because investors were reacting cautiously after hearing news that the majority of the firm's shares would be transferred to Weather Investments, traders said. Italy's Enel agreed to sell telecoms unit Wind to Weather, a grouping of investors including OT Chairman Naguib Sawiris. OT ended the trading week down LE0.43 at LE488.01. The company also announced just before the end of last week that it had signed agreements to sell two Central African mobile phone operations. OT said it had signed a deal to sell its controlling 65 per cent stake in the Republic of Congo's Libertis Telecom and its indirect 100 per cent equity stake in Oasis Telecom in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Also, Vodafone released its financial year 2004-05 results in which the company posted a bottom line figure of LE1.049 billion, illustrating a 2.7 per cent drop from the preceding period. Top line figures increased by 33.6 per cent to reach LE4.39 billion. Cairo Barclays International Bank released its 2005 first quarter results in which the bank posted a bottom line figure of LE45.3 million illustrating a 50 per cent growth over the comparable quarter. Last week also witnessed the sale of 12.8 million shares of Ciment Francais stake in Suez Cement, in a deal worth LE1.2 billion.
