Bombings on Egypt's Red Sea coast hit Egyptian stocks hard on Sunday when the market reopened after the Muslim weekend but prices soon began to stabilise at an average of about 3.5 percent down, brokers said.
Tourism stocks were hardest hit, despite widespread expectations that the bombings will deter mostly Israeli tourists, who account for a small proportion of earnings.
By 1148 GMT, just over two hours into the session, the benchmark Hermes index had fallen sharply from 20,340.03 points to a session low of 19,630.64, a decline of about 3.5 percent, but the decline appeared to be losing momentum. The broader CIBC-100 index had dropped 2.5 percent to 99.07.
One broker said the session opened with a bout of what he called panic selling in response to the three explosions at resorts frequented by Israelis. At least 33 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in the attacks.
But brokers said the slump was driven mainly by the local retail market, while institutional and foreign investors were mostly out of the market.
They said the impact was much less than in 1997, when militant Islamists massacred 58 foreign tourists in Luxor.
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