CAIRO: Egypt's main index fell for a first day in three as blue chips Orascom Telecom (OT) and Commercial International Bank (CIB) weighed. OT dropped 3.4 percent and CIB slipped 1.9 percent. Traders expect the market to move sideways as investors hold off ahead of company results. "Earnings season is almost here, a wait-and-see attitude is a natural reaction," said Omar Darwish of Commercial International Brokerage. Egypt stocks should rise if global markets build on end-of-week gains, he added. Orascom Construction Industries, the biggest listed firm on the index, shed 1.7 percent. A newspaper report on Monday said the firm may bid for final last phase of Egypt's $550 million Pharaonic museum, which will built near the Great Pyramids. Palm Hills Developments SAE shed 5.5 percent. Credit Suisse reinstated the company with an "outperform" rating, saying it "should experience healthy backlog growth in 2010." The index fell 1.9 percent to 5,995 points.
