One of the Heaviest Volumes in Trade

Egyptian Tourism for Resorts leads dip in Egypt shares

Egyptian share indexes edged down on Tuesday led by Egyptian Tourism for Resorts which saw its stock hit by profit-taking as the session's most heavily traded share by volume, traders said.

"Egyptian Tourism for Resorts had one of the heaviest volumes in trade I have seen," said Hashem Ghoneim of El Nour Securities. "The stock has gone up in the past two weeks from 18 pounds to almost 28 pounds, leading to profit-taking today," Ghoneim said.

Traders said retail investors had begun to buy up stock in Egyptian Tourism after the company split its shares on Jan. 29, and were selling the stock on Tuesday after its recent highs. Its shares closed 5 percent down at 25.32 pounds per share.

Traders also said iron producers had issued a warning about an impending decline in the supply of iron in Egypt, which adversely affected the real estate and steel sectors on Tuesday.

In the real estate sector, Sixth of October Development and Investment fell 3.9 percent to 147.01 pounds, while both Alexandria Real Estate Investment and Heliopolis Housing fell 5 percent to close at 181.47 pounds and 160.56 pounds respectively.

In the steel sector, Ezz Dekheila Steel fell 0.85 percent to close at 1,006.01 pounds.

Overall, the benchmark Hermes index closed 0.8 percent lower at 62,442.52 points, while the widely watched CASE 30 index slipped 0.7 percent to 7,127.35 points. The broader CIBC-100 index ended 0.7 percent down at 316.01 points. ($1 = 5.70 Egyptian pounds)