CAIRO: Profit-taking pushed Egyptian shares to end down for the first time in four sessions on Monday, but El Sewedy Cables bucked the trend after announcing its expansion plans in Libya. Traders said retail investors had triggered the sell-off to capitalize on the market s bullish run in the last three days. It was mainly profit-taking. There was no material news to sell, Mohamed Radwan of Delta Securities said. El Sewedy, one of the biggest cable manufacturers in the Middle East, said it had an agreement to build a power cable plant in Libya with an investment cost of LE 365 million. Shares in the firm rose after the announcement and ended 1.6 percent higher at 42 pounds a share. EFG-Hermes, the most traded stock by turnover, fell 1.1 percent to LE 37.15 a share after the investment bank said it would release its full-year results before the market opens on Thursday. I don t think the market is that optimistic that the fourth quarter of EFG-Hermes s results would be as good as the previous three quarters, said Ahmed Ata, an investment manager at Cairo Capital Group. EFG-Hermes had reported a 173 percent increase in its nine-month net income in November to 510 million pounds. But what happened in the market today does not change the short- and medium-term uptrend. I think it is still positive.
