CAIRO, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Egypt's benchmark stock indexes ended in the green on Wednesday after a steady decline from a sharp spike early in the day. Brokers said investors were taking profits on many big cap stocks.
Brokers said investors had been buying up shares since the start of the week on Sunday in anticipation of the outcome of the U.S. elections, boosting the market, and were taking profits on the first day after Democrat Barack Obama won the White House.
"People had been buying in anticipation that markets abroad would rise after the U.S. election," said Mohamed Tawfiq of Delta Rasmala Securities.
"As the saying goes: people were buying in expectation and today were selling on the fact," said Mohamed Kotb of Jazira Asset Management.
But the buying spree ended within minutes of the start of trade as investors began taking profits.
The CASE 30 index closed 0.75 percent up at 5354.35, but had risen as high as 5512.10 within the first 15 minutes of trade before trailing off to the closing level.
Likewise, the Hermes index closed 0.4 percent up at 481.60 points, after hitting a high of 494.63 around the same time of day.
A number of big cap shares also peaked early in the session and then declined to fall into the red. Orascom Construction lost 0.38 percent to last trade at 200 pounds per share, while investment bank EFG-Hermes lost 2.02 percent to 24.27 pounds per share.
Commercial International Bank lost 6.29 percent to last trade at 30.86 pounds per share.
Orascom Telecom managed to buck the trend and last trade 0.29 percent higher at 37.50 pounds per share.
The broader CIBC 100 index closed 0.19 percent lower at 292.55 points. ($1 = 5.5389 Egyptian pounds) (Writing by Aziz El-Kaissouni)