CAIRO - Egypt's benchmark stock index extended losses on Wednesday to a fresh closing year low led by declines in big caps like Orascom Construction Industries , traders said.
"It is a continuation of what we saw yesterday, just continued selling pressure on the market," Mohamed Radwan of Pharos Securities said.
Shares in Orascom Construction last traded 0.23 percent lower at 388 Egyptian pounds ($73.08) per share, while the benchmark Case 30 index lost 0.63 percent to 9,134.08 points.
Teymour el-Derini, trader at Beltone investment bank, cited negative market sentiment "across the board", with weakness in some large caps.
Commercial International Bank, Egypt's largest lender by market value, lost 2.54 percent to 72.50 pounds. Ezz Steel , Egypt's largest steel company by sales, dipped 0.49 percent to 75 pounds.
But market heavyweight Orascom Telecom gained 1.24 percent to 56.35 pounds, bouncing back from a year-low of 54.60 pounds set on Tuesday and helping to temper the market's downward slide.
Investment bank EFG-Hermes also ended the day higher, climbing 0.41 percent to 46.90 pounds. El Sewedy Cables gained 0.53 percent to 146.80 pounds after announcing it would raise its issued capital to 1.322 billion pounds through a one for 10 share dividend.
Shares in the Egyptian Financial and Industrial Company gained 0.69 percent to 355 pounds after posting a 69 percent rise in pre-tax profit for the first half of the year.
Overall, the well-watched Hermes index dipped 0.59 percent to 794.09 points while the broader CIBC index declined 1.85 percent to 451.39 points.