CAIRO - For the second day in a row, Egyptian indexes fell on Tuesday amid low volumes, traders said. Foreign selling pulled the country's benchmark index 0.93 per cent down to 5,529.24 points, they added. The broader indexes EGX 70 and EGX 100 were also in the red, slipping by 0.81 per cent to 648.9 and 1,002.23 points respectively. Volume exceeded LE543 million, according to Bourse data. Locals made net purchses worth LE63 million ($10.6 million), according to Bourse data. Arab and non-Arab investors made net sell-offs worth LE19.3 million and LE43.7 million respectively. Egypt's heavyweight Commercial International Bank (CIB) fell by 1.48 per cent to LE30.64 per share. EFG-Hermes, the country's biggest investment bank by market value, slipped by 0.73 per cent to LE21.82 per share. Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) shed 0.77 per cent to LE275.8 per share. Orascom Telecom, the largest Arab mobile operator by subscribers, plunged by 2.1 per cent LE4.2 per share. Meanwhile, world stocks and the euro rose from last week's three-week lows as expectations that the euro zone will avoid a messy default of Greek sovereign debt attracted investors back into risky assets, Reuters reported. Investors are awaiting a parliamentary confidence vote for Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, a step toward the passage of more spending cuts in exchange for foreign loans. World stocks are down nearly eight per cent from their three-year high set in May as investors grew worried disorderly restructuring of Greek debt would cause ructions in the market and hit the region's banking sector. "The market is likely to lack true conviction. The Greek situation continues to cast a very long shadow over the market. All eyes are going to be on the political vote in Greece to see where that leads us," said Keith Bowman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. "Certainly valuations are more attractive than they were. We have seen some selective bargain hunting here and there." MSCI world equity index was up half a percent on the day while the FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 0.5 per cent. Emerging stocks rose one per cent. Shanghai stocks -- which have been under pressure on concerns about more credit tightening -- rose one per cent to move away from the previous day's nine-month low. "From a valuation perspective, the equity market is very attractive. In a more normal environment, we would clearly be at a 'buy' level," said Marco Bruzzo, fund manager at Mirabaud Gestion Asset Management. "But in the short term, the market is reined in by the sovereign debt crisis, the U.S. economic slowdown and China's inflation risks." US crude oil rose one per cent to $94.24 a barrel, helped by the dollar which fell a quarter percent against a basket of major currencies.
