The Egyptian Exchange dropped to a two-year low yesterday after clashes between military police and Coptic Christians in Cairo left 24 people dead and more than 200 injured.
Markets: Performance
Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange close
The EGX 30 Index lost as much as 5 per cent at the opening, the biggest decline since the bourse reopened following the ousting of Hosni Mubarak as president in February. Trading was suspended for half an hour yesterday.
The country's cabinet called an emergency meeting and said the violence would not derail the imminent parliamentary elections, scheduled to take place on November 28.
Among the biggest losers was Pioneers Holding, a property developer, which dropped 6.1 per cent to 2.90 Egyptian pounds a share. Orascom Telecom lost 2.4 per cent to 3.17 pounds. "Clearly there is a lot of nervousness on the current political transition in Egypt and those kinds of headlines will never be taken positively," said Julian Bruce, the director of equity sales at EFG-Hermes in Dubai.
The index closed down 2.5 per cent at 3,929.73 points, the lowest level since March 2009.
The Dubai Financial Market General Index lost 0.6 per cent to 1,389.57 points, while the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index was little changed at 2,498.
Kuwait's measure was flat at 5,847.60, Bahrain's index lost 0.8 per cent to 1,153.88, Oman's measure was little changed at 5,566.90 and Qatar's benchmark added 0.2 per cent to 8,284.79.
The Saudi Tadawul All-Share Index was up 0.61 per cent to 6,136.97 yesterday.