CAIRO, March 25 (Reuters) - Egypt's main stock index fell for the first time in seven sessions on Wednesday as investors sold shares of stocks that have rallied to buy underperformers.
Foreign funds sold shares of firms including Mobinil, which surged on Tuesday, said Seif Attia, a trader at Pharos Securities.
"Foreign fund managers were selling Mobinil and reallocated to stocks that didn't rally," he said.
Mobinil shares have gained 0.25 percent since the beginning of 2009, the fifth best performer on the EGX30 index. They ended the session down 3.8 percent at 147 pounds ($26).
Shares of Orascom Telecom, the third-best performers on the main index this month, fell 2.2 percent to 26.73 pounds.
Shares of appliance-maker Olympic Group, the second worst performer this year on the EGX30, jumped 8.47 percent to 17.80 pounds. They had fallen 33 percent this year to Tuesday's close.
Shares of Arab Cotton Ginning surged 11.59 percent to 4.14 pounds on speculation the company may seek to buy back some of its own shares, Attia said.
The company could not immediately be reached for comment.
The EGX30 fell 1.12 percent to 4,167.24 points and the Hermes index shed 0.64 percent to 392.36 points. The broader EGX70 gained 1.43 percent to 511.98 points. ($1 = 5.63 Egyptian pounds) (Writing by Will Rasmussen)