Egypt Stocks Down

Egypt's stocks ended trading in the red with the main EGX30 index dropping 0.51 percent to close at 5,428 points. The market saw impressive gains on Wednesday gaining 1.1 percent on the back of favourable results announced by major real estate and telecommunication stocks.

Market turnover on Thursday reached LE325 million with 97 shares losing value and 41 gaining. Non-Arab foreign investors were the main net sellers in the session, making up 22.5 percent of total trade. Investment house EFG-Hermes was most the active share in the session, dropping a sizeable 1.71 percent to close at LE9.76 per share.

Real estate firm Palm Hills Developments dropped 1.27 percent to close at LE2.34 per share. It climbed 4 percent on Wednesday as the company announced a net profit of LE45.3 million in Q1 2013. Commercial International Bank (CIB), Egypt's largest private bank, grew 0.91 percent to LE34.34. CIB announced a 30 percent annual increase in first-quarter net income to LE658 million ($94.4 million) as its interest margin widened.

Talaat Mostafa Group, Ezz Steel, and Telecom Egypt saw modest gains of 0.24, 0.5 and 0.15 percent, respectively. Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) fell 0.21 percent. The broader based EGX70 index dropped 0.41 percent to sit at 451 points.