Egypt bourse slips from six-week high

Egypt’s main benchmark slipped 0.3 percent Wednesday to ease from Tuesday’s six-week high. Foreigners were net sellers against Egyptian buyers, bourse data showed. Civil unrest overshadowed upbeat investor sentiment on the formation of an interim Cabinet.

Thousands of supporters of deposed Egyptian President Mohammad Mursi demonstrated outside the prime minister’s office Wednesday in a “day of steadfastness.”

Meanwhile, the emirate’s bourse rallied ahead of UAE second-quarter earnings. Air Arabia surged to a near five-year high, jumping 8.3 percent to reach its highest level since October 2008 and was also the biggest gainer and top trader.

“Air Arabia has been our favorite pick since the beginning of the year because it’s a defensive stock that also has a high growth story,” said Marwan Shurrab, fund manager and head of trading at Vision Investments.

“Not only institutions are piling in but retail [investors] are also aggressively buying – it has the best dividend yield in the market,” he added.

Air Arabia has a 12-month forecast of a 6.4 percent yield, which compares with 4.7 percent for a selection of regional stocks, according to Reuters data.