CAIRO, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Shares of Orascom Construction Industries, Egypt's largest builder by market value, posted their sharpest single-day drop in at least a month on Monday as foreign investors took profits, traders said.
Shares of Orascom shed 2.68 percent to 136.75 Egyptian pounds ($25), their fifth session of losses. The stock is still up nearly 20 percent since mid-December.
Orascom Telecom, the largest Arab mobile operator by subscribers, dipped 1.53 percent to 29.60 pounds. Shares of Orascom Telecom have gained 3.10 percent in the five sessions to Sunday, according to Reuters data.
"It was some sort of profit-taking session," said Mohamed Ashmawy from CIBC Brokerage. "Nothing major happened in the session, it was very quiet. Even volumes were very low most of the time."
Foreigners were returning to the market after a recent absence, accounting for 19 percent of trade, according to stock exchange data. They were net sellers to the value of 31 million pounds.
Real estate firm Talaat Moustafa was the biggest gainer by turnover and volume, up 3.5 percent to 3.25 pounds.
"There is a lot of what you might call speculative trading, speculating on news to come in the near future," said Ali Saleh from HC Securities, adding that the individual shares are cheap and easy to buy and sell on the same day.
In recent weeks foreign participation has been well below average, with brokers saying direction will only return to the market when these institutions finish repositioning their allocations for the year, likely towards the end of January.
"Most of the (foreign) funds are currently contemplating reallocating their portfolio within Egypt," Saleh said. "They are going through the process of stock picking all over again."
The benchmark CASE 30 index ended 0.60 percent lower at 4,600.31 points and the rival Hermes index declined 0.63 percent to 434.54 points. The broader CIBC index shaved off 0.16 percent to 314.4 points.
"This is the start, it's not a one day incident," CIBC's Ashmawy said. "It's going to take some time to recover." ($1 = 5.5132 Egyptian pounds) (Writing by Alastair Sharp)