[2007-11-01]  Egyptian stock rally falters, Arabs sell
A six-day rally in Egyptian shares faltered on Wednesday as Arabs sold off to take profits, pushing the benchmark CASE 30 index down 0.4 percent, brokers said.

But non-Arab foreigners continued as net buyers by a margin of 68.3 million Egyptian pounds ($12.4 million), dampening the effects of the Arab sell-off.

The profit-taking hit Sixth of October Investment and Development (SODIC) despite persistent rumours that the Talaat Mustafa Group was planning to make a takeover bid for the company at 235 pounds. The media office of the Talaat Mustafa Group denied the rumour later on Wednesday.

SODIC shares last traded 0.6 percent down at 210 pounds.

The other market-making news was the announcement that Egypt Kuwait Holding is in joint-venture with South Valley Cement to build a new cement plant.

South Valley shares rose to 17.40 pounds but later slipped back to close unchanged at 16.74.

The news hit Egypt Kuwait Holding because investors had thought it would be alone in exploiting the cement licence it won in an auction on Sunday, brokers said. The shares last traded 4.4 percent lower at $2.59.

The brokers said they expected the rally to resume soon, possibly as soon as Thursday when the sale of Al Watany Bank of Egypt shares to National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) goes through the exchange.

NBK has bought 93.7 percent of Al Watany at 77.01 pounds a share -- a transaction worth 950 million pounds.

"That means a bit of cash might be injected back into the market," Sarah Tolba of Delta Securities said.

Mobile phone operator Mobinil fell 2.3 percent to 195 pounds hours before it was due to announce its third quarter results. Brokerages have forecast between no change and a 4 percent increase in the company's net profit after tax, compared with the same period of last year.

The CASE 30 index closed at 9,390.86, 0.4 percent down, and the widely watched Hermes index was 0.6 percent down at 82,956.87 points. The broader CIBC index was down 0.4 percent at 406.59. ($1 = 5.51 Egyptian pounds)

Source: © Reuters 2007.