CAIRO - For the third day in a row, Egypt's main index was in the red on Thursday on non-Arab selling, traders said. The country's benchmark index EGX 30 slipped by 0.11 per cent, ending the week at 5,136.78 points, according to Bourse data. The broader index EGX 70 added 0.29 per cent to 641.33 points. Locals and Arabs made net purchses worth LE10.2 million ($1.7 million) and LE13 million. Volume hit LE383 million, according to Bourse data. Non-Arabs made net sell-offs worth LE23.3 million. Egypt's heavyweight Commercial International Bank (CIB) rose by 0.3 to LE27.1 per share. EFG-Hermes, the country's biggest investment bank by market value, shed 0.56 per cent to LE19.7 per share. Orascom Construction Industries slipped by 0.6 per cent to LE267.89 per share. Orascom Telecom, the largest Arab mobile operator by subscribers, gained 0.77 per cent LE3.93 per share. Meanwhile, Eastern Company posted a net profit of LE631 million ($105.9 million) for the full year to the end of June, down 26 per cent from a year earlier, according to Reuters. The cigarette monopoly made net profit of LE850.4 million in fiscal 2009-10. Globally, the euro fell broadly and world stocks slipped from a 1-1/2 week high after European officials said a selective default for Greece was a live possibility, raising concerns about impact on the banking sector. With eurozone leaders gathering in Brussels, Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager said a short-term or selective default for Greece, previously opposed by the European Central Bank, was now a possibility. "The demand to prevent a selective default has been removed," he told the Dutch parliament. The MSCI world equity index fell 0.3 per cent. European stocks fell 0.7 per cent, while emerging stocks lost 0.3 per cent. Earlier, a survey of manufacturers showed activity in China's manufacturing sector shrank for the first time in a year in July, although the figures had little sustained impact after the latest GDP report showed overall growth remained robust.
