CAIRO - The trial of ousted president Hosni Mubarak cast its shadow on Egyptian stocks on Wedenesday as traders were glued to television screens , the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) said. The country's benchmark index EGX 30 fell by 0.88 per cent to 4,923.29 points amid light volumes. Volume hit a 10-year low at LE239 million ($40 million), according to Bourse data. "Volumes were negatively affected by the trial, which was televised live. It distracted investos during the trading session," Marwa Hamed, a trader at Wathika Brokerage, was quoted by MENA as saying. "Volumes were very light in early trading, but there was a pick-up by the end of the day," she added. The broader indexes EGX 70 and EGX 100 slipped by 0.33 and 0.44 per cent to 628.94 and 935.58 points respectively. Arabs and non-Arab investors made net sell-offs worth LE10.5 million ($1.8 million) and LE17.1 million respectively, according to Bourse data. Locals made net purchases worth LE27.6 million. Egypt's heavyweight Commercial International Bank (CIB) rose by 0.22 per cent to LE26.82 per share. EFG-Hermes, the country's biggest investment bank by market value, shed 0.9 per cent to LE18.72 per share. Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) fell by 1.12 per cent to LE255.47 per share. Orascom Telecom, the largest Arab mobile operator by subscribers, shed 3.46 per cent to LE3.63 per share. Globally, stocks tumbled toward five-month lows and top-rated government bonds rallied as worries grew that fiscal cutbacks and stagnating factory output would prolong a global economic slowdown and aggravate Europe's debt crisis, Reuters reported. Disappointing results from European banks -- Societe Generale becoming the latest -- also highlighted concerns the bloc's current rescue fund (EFSF) may be insufficient to stop peripheral debt problems from spreading to other countries, especially Italy and Spain. "Disappointing economic data on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as surging Italian and Spanish bond yields, has seen risk appetite plummet as pessimism about the global recovery starts to take hold with a vengeance," CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said. "The steam is slowly building in the sovereign debt pressure cooker as the realization slowly dawns that the EFSF doesn't have the funds to prevent a full scale financial meltdown, which would only leave the European Central Bank as the last line of defense." MSCI world equity index fell 0.7 per cent to hit its lowest since mid-March. The index is down 1.7 per cent since January. Emerging stocks fell 1.7 per cent. The S&P 500 slipped into negative territory for the year on Tuesday, sending a strong bearish signal. The dollar fell 0.15 per cent against a basket of major currencies while the euro rose 0.4 per cent to $1.4235. The US currency fell 0.2 percent to 77.18 yen but kept distance from its record low near 76.25 on concerns about possible intervention by Japanese authorities. The premium investors demand to hold Italian and Spanish 10-year government bonds over German Bunds widened further. Worries about Italy's huge public debt sent bond yields to 14-year highs on Tuesday and brought the euro zone's third largest economy closer to a full-scale financial crisis less than two weeks after policymakers agreed a deal aimed at preventing contagion.
