CAIRO, March 30 (Reuters) - Egypt's main stock index declined almost two percent on Monday, led by losses in Orascom Telecom and Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) as local retail investors took profits.
Orascom Telecom shed 7.04 percent to 25.47 Egyptian pounds ($4.52), while fellow heavyweight OCI ended 6.52 percent lower at 134 pounds, both in low volumes. OCI's close was its lowest in nine trading sessions.
"Our market has been going up with extreme volumes for the last three or four days, but the participation was mostly from retail (investors)," said Karim Hosny from Pharos Securities.
"We were going against the international trend, mostly on retail speculative buying. Today these buyers run out of steam," he said.
The benchmark EGX 30 index dipped 1.96 percent to 4,247.48 points, while the rival Hermes index shed 1.88 percent to 405.16 points. The broader EGX 70 closed 1.45 percent lower at 539.06 points.
Real estate developer Talaat Moustafa again led the market in traded volumes, closing 8.84 percent lower at 3.61 pounds.
"It was across the board profit taking," said Mohamed Ashmawy, senior equity sales trader at CIBC Brokerage.
El Sewedy Cables was one of the only major firms to gain, up 2.02 percent to 50 pounds.
"Sewedy is a defensive stock and it is known to outperform a down market," Hosny said. ($1 = 5.6373 Egyptian pounds) (Writing by Alastair Sharp)