Egypt stocks down on profit taking

Egypt's stock market declined following a week's considerable rise in anticipation of the referendum on the new constitution held Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

 

The benchmark EGX30 index dropped 0.76 percent, ending the week at 7,143 points Thursday.

 

"The market fell on profit taking, which is normal following the sharp rise in the days leading to the referendum," Ashraf Abdel Aziz, head of institutional sales at the Cairo-based Arabia Online Securities, told Ahram Online.

 

Turnover of listed stock registered LE752 million, which was seen by Abdel Aziz as signifying a relatively reasonable decline.

 

Out of 186 traded stocks, 45 were gainers while 124 shares declined.

 

Ghabour Auto, which announced a deal with Russian Gazprom to exclusively distribute lubricants in the Egyptian market, saw its share price rise 2.19 percent to close at LE36.79 per share.

 

In the non-banking financial sector, EFG-Hermes, Arabian Investments Development Company and Pioneers Holding inched up 1.11 percent, 4.44 percent and 0.63 percent as their share prices closed at LE10.9, LE1.88 and LE6.4 per share respectively.

 

In the telecommunications sector, Telecom Egypt and Global Telecom Holding inched down 0.94 percent and 0.59 percent, closing at LE14.7 and LE5.03 per share respectively.