For the fourth day in a row, Egyptian stocks fell on Monday on non-Arab selling, traders said. The North African country's main index EGX 30 shed 72.47 points, or 1.13 per cent, to 6,321.2 points. The EGX 70 index, which measures 70 of the country's small and mid caps, fell by 0.81 per cent to 561.35 points. Orascom Telecom, the largest Arab mobile operator by subscribers, fell by 1.46 per cent to LE5.39 ($0.96) per share. EFG-Hermes, the country's largest investment bank by market value, dipped 2.54 LE29.15 per share. Orascom Construction Industries, Egypt's largest builder by market value, shed 1.11 per cent, closing at LE28.41 per share. Volume hit LE738 million, according to the Egyptian Exchange. Non-Arabs made net sell-offs worth LE10.44 million. In a related event, Arafa Holding, Egypt's biggest garment exporter, will distribute a dividend of one share for every 10 owned, the firm said yesterday. Later in the year, it will distribute yet another share for every 10 owned "subject to the improvement in the global financial markets in general and local market in specific," the firm said in a statement carried by Reuters. Arafa said revenue for the financial year to end-January had declined 14.5 percent to $332 million, without providing a comparison figure. Meanwhile, world stocks recovered some composure with emerging markets leading the way after a late Friday rally in banking shares on Wall Street ended what was otherwise a dismal week for equities investors. The euro gave back some of the gains it managed at the end of last week and was lower against the dollar. Global stocks as measured by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) were up 0.3 per cent after losing 4.8 per cent last week on worries about a slowing global economy and stresses in the eurozone. Emerging markets stocks were up one per cent after losing 7.6 per cent last week. European trading was thin due to a religious holiday, but most markets were open. The FTSEurofirst 300 was up 0.8 per cent. "There's some value-searching going on, even before the last correction the market wasn't over-priced, and investors are starting to realize there's some value to be had," said Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown. Equity markets have been battered recently, first by a fear that some European countries, notably Greece, were heading for a default on their sovereign debt and then about the impact of a debt rescue package on growth prospects. Jun Kato, senior manager for investment at Shinkin Asset Management, said while the euro zone's fiscal trouble was still in focus, "wariness about its impact on the global economy seems to be spreading." The euro pulled back from a late rally on Friday with investors remaining wary of extending gains given fiscal problems plaguing some euro zone countries.
