Arab Polvara left in a spin

Egypt's Arab Polvara Spinning and Weaving tumbled for a third day, bringing its three-day loss to almost 20 per cent, as the textile firm shut down indefinitely because of workers going on strike after demanding higher pay.

"The company's factories will be shut down until further notice after the negligent behaviour of workers led to machines being out of service and stopping productions," said Arab Polvara.

It "hopes that workers will listen to the voice of reason and return to work which is in their interest, and the rights of shareholders, to continue the activities of the firm."

Arab Polvara's shares fell 4.6 per cent on Thursday and another 4.6 per cent on Sunday after protests emerged and the company said it was in negotiations with the workers. The shares tumbled 9.9 per cent during trading yesterday. At the close, they were 9.3 per cent lower to 3.64 Egyptian pounds.

UAE bourses slipped lower yesterday, amid investor caution ahead of the United States elections taking place today. The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index lost 0.2 per cent to 2,662.76 points, while the Dubai Financial Market Index declined 0.3 per cent to 1,612.97.

"It's hard to determine what will happen after the elections, if it's Obama or Romney, we have so many hurdles, such as the looming US$600 billion US fiscal cliff, the cut on government spending and higher taxes set to start in January - and how they would deal with it," said Haissam Arabi, the chief executive of Gulfmena Investments in Dubai.

halsayegh@thenational.ae