CAIRO - Foreign selling pulled Egyptian indexes down on Thursday amid light volumes, traders said. The country's benchmark index EGX 30 fell by 1.49 per cent, ending the week at 4,592.31 points. The broader indexes EGX 70 and EGX 100 shed 1.56 per cent to 578.07 and 863.89 points respectively. Arabs and non-Arabs made net sell-offs worth LE20.7 million ($3.5 million), while locals made net purchases worth LE25.1 million. Volume totalled LE422 million, according to Bourse data. Egypt's heavyweight Commercial International Bank (CIB) slipped by 0.4 per cent to LE25.04 per share. EFG-Hermes, the country's biggest investment bank by market value, fell by 1.06 per cent to LE17.69 per share. Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) lost one per cent to LE244.6 per share. Orascom Telecom, the largest Arab mobile operator by subscribers, slid by 2.72 per cent to LE3.22 per share. Mobinil plunged by 4.03 per cent to LE89.17 per share. CIB has reported an 11 per cent dip in second-quarter net profit after political and economic turmoil dented foreign exchange income, banking fees and the value of investment sales, according to Reuters. Net income was LE443 million ($74.3 million), down from LE496 million in the same period a year earlier, the company said in a statement. It was higher than the average analyst forecast of 403 million pounds in a Reuters poll. Egypt's business sector is struggling to recover from the disruption that followed President Hosni Mubarak's overthrow in February, and banks have been hit further by a weak financial market and an exodus of foreign investors. "In a challenging year filled with unprecedented circumstances, CIB managed to maintain a healthy liquidity position where the bank's balance sheet grew by 3.43 percent over December 2010," CIB said. CIB shares have fallen 48 per cent this year, worse than a 35 percent drop by Egypt's benchmark EGX 30.
