CAIRO - Egyptian stocks fell on Wednesday on profit-taking amid low volumes, traders said. Locals and Arabs made net purchses worth LE44.9 million ($7.5 million) and LE1.8 million respectively, according to Bourse data. Non-Arab investors made net sell-offs worth LE46.7 million. The country's benchmark index EGX 30 fell by 0.94 per cent to 5,560.54 points. The broader indexes EGX 70 and EGX 100 were also in the red, slipping by 0.03 and 0.45 per cent to 655.13 and 1,013.1 points respectively. Volume exceeded LE495 million, according to Bourse data. Egypt's heavyweight Commercial International Bank (CIB) slipped by 0.1 per cent to LE30.99 per share. Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) plunged 2.21 per cent to LE278.77 per share. Orascom Telecom, the largest Arab mobile operator by subscribers, shed 0.48 per cent LE4.16 per share. Telecom Egypt slid by 0.9 per cent to LE15.45 per share. EFG-Hermes, the country's biggest investment bank by market value, fell by 0.5 per cent to LE21.92 per share. EFG-Hermes said first-quarter net profit slumped 93 per cent, hit by political turmoil and with the 2010 period boosted by an exceptional capital gain, Reuters reported. Net income dropped to LE36 million ($6.1 million), the bank said. EFG-Hermes said first-quarter revenue would have risen 17 per cent had it not been for an extraordinary LE717 million capital gain in the 2010 period from the sale of a stake in Lebanese lender Bank Audi. First-quarter operating revenue fell 60 per cent to LE431 million, while operating costs rose 39 percent to LE285 million. It said investment banking operations were hit by the region's political turmoil and the closure of the stock exchange for 35 trading days during the quarter due to the unrest. Meanwhile, European equities and the euro fell and safe-haven government bonds rose as divisions between euro zone officials over a new aid plan for debt-laden Greece curbed appetite for risky assets. Worry about lack of substantive progress toward a blueprint for tackling the eurozone debt crisis kept investors on edge, pushing Greek, Portuguese and Irish bond yields to their highest levels since the introduction of the euro in 1999. Striking Greeks raged against a new wave of austerity after euro zone finance ministers failed to agree how to make private creditors contribute to a second bailout for their indebted country. This put the onus on the leaders of Germany and France to forge a deal later this week. World stocks as measured by MSCI fell 0.4 per cent, with some strategists saying more weakness could be in store for European shares. "The easiest way for markets to deal with uncertainty is to go down," said Philip Isherwood, European equities strategist at Evolution Securities. The sour mood in equities prompted gains in safe-haven U.S. and German government bond prices, pushing 10-year T-note yields about two basis points lower to 3.082 percent with equivalent Bund yields down one bp at 3.01 per cent.
