Some selling by foreigners after last week's downbeat comments from HSBC, as well as profit-taking, weighed on the Egyptian bourse on Wednesday, but the benchmark index stayed in its recent range, traders said. One dealer also cited some uncertainty about whether the presidential election campaign, which began on Wednesday, would go smoothly, and said this was prompting some investor caution. Some recent anti-government protests have been marred by scuffles and police beatings. The Hermes index slid 483.54 points, or 1.2 percent, to 41,384.80 points, still within a range of roughly 41,100 to 42,800 that has held since late July. The broader CIBC index slipped 0.96 points, 0.6 percent, to 151.94 points. "We have been hearing that some foreign investors are reducing their weightings in the market," said Yasser Hassanein of Dynamic Securities. He said it followed last week's HSBC report that cut its recommendation for Egypt to "neutral" from "overweight". Dealers also said some investors were using recent gains in some stocks to book profits, such as Orascom Hotels, which on Tuesday rose to its highest level since late July. It last traded down 6.1 percent on Wednesday at 35.90 Egyptian pounds ($6.22). EFG-Hermes also slipped. It started drifting lower at the start of this week, but dropped sharply on Wednesday, last trading down 6.7 percent at 41.30 pounds. Dealers said there was no clear reason for Wednesday's sharp fall but said some investors had been looking to take profits after it hit a record high at the end of last week. Bucking the downward trend, several cement firms climbed, which dealers said was helped by rising cement demand during the summer months for construction. National Cement surged 5 percent to last trade at 28.85 pounds. South Valley Cement also rose 5 percent, while Misr Cement Qena rose 2.5 percent.
