Egyptian indexes slightly fell on Monday on non-Arab selling, traders said. Non-Arabs made net sell-offs exceeding LE118 million ($51.5 million), they added. The North African country's benchmark index EGX 30 slightly fell by 0.09 per cent, ending the day's trading at 6,702.14 points. The EGX 70 index, which measures 70 of the country's small and mid caps, shed 0.16 per cent to 765.16 points. Volume hit LE1.6 billion ($292 million), according to the Egyptian Exchange. In a related event, Cairo-based financial services firm Pioneers Holding has decided to boost its stake in Egyptian developer El Kahera Housing to 25 per cent, it said in a statement to the Egyptian Exchange yesterday. "The board of directors of Pioneers Holding for Financial Investments agreed ... to approve the recommendation of the investment committee to increase the company's stake in El Kahera Housing to 25 per cent," the statement said. Meanwhile, HC Brokerage raised its price targets on Egypt's National Societe Generale Bank (NSGB) and Commercial International Bank (CIB), after the two banks posted strong fourth-quarter results. NSGB beat all expectations on getting rid of non-performing loans, which fell to 4.8 per cent in the fourth quarter, edging closer to Commercial International Bank's 2.9 per cent, the brokerage said in a note to clients. "NSGB is well established to capitalise on vast potential within the retail market in Egypt," said the brokerage, adding that NSGB already secures 15 percent of its portfolio in retail versus CIB's 8 per cent. CIB's fourth-quarter profit was in line with the brokerage's expectations, down six per cent to LE387 million from a year ago. Globally, world stocks hit two and half weeks highs, while oil reached a six-week peak as investors became increasingly confident about the outlook for the US economic recovery. The euro held above last week's nine-week low against the dollar after Der Spiegel reported on Saturday that Germany's finance ministry had prepared a bail-out plan for Greece under which countries using the euro would provide aid worth between 20-25 billion euros. Last week's surprise rise in the Federal Reserve's emergency lending rate initially spooked investors, some of whom feared the move would bring forward broader policy tightening. But comments from various Fed officials and Friday's data showing benign US inflation allayed concerns and investors are increasingly viewing last week's move as a vote of confidence in the world's biggest economy. "Asian shares have been firm and the US was higher on Friday, giving support to Europe," said Bernard McAlinden, market strategist at NCB Stockbrokers. "There might be some near-term relief on Greece. The market has given it some benefit of the doubt that they will meet the requirements, but that is far from given and the markets can be quite fickle." The Morgan Stanley Capital International's (MSCI) world equity index rose 0.6 per cent while the FTSEurofirst 300 index gained 0.15 per cent, driven by basic resource shares. Emerging stocks rose 1.4 per cent, while Shanghai stocks finished the first trading day after a week-long break down as concerns persisted about further tightening in China's monetary policy. The dollar fell 0.2 percent against a basket of major currencies while the euro was steady at $1.3629 after the report on Greece.
