CAIRO: Egypt s benchmark stock index, the CASE 30, dropped to a four-year low on Thursday as panicky retail investors reacted to the fall of new resistance levels, brokers said. Shares fell across the board on low volume and the brokers said sentiment about the overall economy was gloomy. But foreign investors were net buyers for at least the third day in a row, picking up bargains in companies which now have P/E ratios as low as 2 or 3. There s a genuine negative sentiment in the market. A lot of people are beginning to feel the recession, said Yasser Hassanein of Dynamic Securities. A lot of the trading is moving on technical analysis. Any level that s broken drives you to look at the level below. People are now looking at the 2,800-3,000 level (on the CASE 30), he added. Total turnover was LE 534 million ($96 million), about half of the average before the international financial crisis started in September. Declining stocks outnumbered advances by 154 to nine. Orascom Telecom, the most heavily traded stock, fell 9.19 percent to LE 17.20, its lowest close since September 2004. Ezz Steel Rebars also fell back to September 2004 levels, last trading 11.9 percent down at LE 6.22, about one sixth of its value last May. Retail investors accounted for 62.5 percent of trade, while foreign investors, who tend to be institutions, were net buyers by a margin of LE 42.7 million, the stock exchange said. -Reuters
