Egypt's stock market fell back from near technical resistance on Sunday while Gulf markets also slipped in the absence of fresh, positive news. The Egyptian index, which is up 22 percent since the end of last month in response to a devaluation of the currency, has stalled in the past few days below last October's peak of 7,671 points.
It spent much of Sunday trading higher but ultimately closed 0.9 percent lower at 7,480 points. Trading volume was active but shrunk from recent days' levels.
Central bank Governor Tarek Amer said on Saturday that he had pumped $22 billion into the banking system to clear goods piled at ports. But he did not give details of where he was obtaining the money or how he would resolve Egypt's endemic hard currency shortage in the long term.
Amer also said that U.S. dollar-denominated "Belady" certificates offered by the three largest state-owned banks in recent weeks to Egyptians abroad, in a bid to persuade them to invest their dollar savings in their home country, had seen a weak response.
Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris's Orascom Telecom Media (OTM), the most heavily traded stock, dropped 3.8 percent after Sawiris said on Sunday that OTM's bid to acquire CI Capital, the investment arm of Commercial International Bank (CIB), was being held up by national security concerns.
Sawiris also criticised state meddling in business that he said would put off investors. OTM unit Beltone Financial , which is to conduct the take-over, dropped 1.7 percent.
CIB slipped 4.3 percent. It had dropped 1.3 percent on Thursday after the central bank placed a time limit on the tenures of chief executives of commercial lenders, a decision which is expected to force managers including CIB's Hisham Ezz al-Arab to resign their positions.
Arabian Cement lost 2.2 percent after reporting a 26 percent fall in 2015 consolidated net profit.
In the Gulf, the Saudi index fell 1.5 percent as Saudi Cement, which went ex-dividend on Sunday, tumbled 8.2 percent.
Saudi Telecom sank 3.5 percent as telecommunications shares continued to slide, after a Gulf Cooperation Council official said on Thursday that the six-nation bloc would cut roaming charges for making and receiving calls and sending text messages by an average 40 percent from April 1.
Dubai's stock index fell 1.2 percent to 3,279 points, approaching technical support on its mid-March low of 3,253 points. Dubai Parks & Resorts, the most heavily traded stock, pulled back 5.1 percent after proposing to boost its capital by 1.68 billion dirhams ($458 million) through a rights issue.
Shuaa Capital lost steam after soaring last week. It rose more than 7 percent in the opening minutes of trade on Sunday but closed 1.1 percent lower. On Thursday the stock, which has been rebounding from a record low hit earlier this year, jumped its 15 percent daily limit in its heaviest trading volume since at least 2002.
In a statement to the exchange on Sunday, Shuaa said it had held a routine board meeting on Thursday but "did not resolve any material matter" at the meeting. It did not elaborate.
Abu Dhabi's index fell 0.8 percent as telecommunications firm Etisalat, also hit by the cut in regional roaming charges, dropped 1.1 percent.
Qatar fell 0.6 percent but several stocks rose sharply. Mesaieed Petrochemical, the most heavily traded share, surged 9.5 percent.
Gulf Warehousing, which has been rising since the middle of last week when the Qatar Central Securities Depository raised the maximum foreign ownership percentage in the company's shares to 49 percent of its capital, added a further 6.0 percent.
Al Khalij Commercial Bank rose 1.8 percent after the depository raised its own foreign ownership ceiling to 49 percent on Sunday - though actual foreign ownership before the change was just 10.95 percent.
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