Commercial International Bank Slumps on Moody’s Egypt Report

Commercial International Bank, the biggest publicly traded lender in Egypt, fell after Moody’s Investor Service said the country’s banks are increasingly vulnerable to sovereign credit risk because of their high exposure to government debt.

The shares of Commercial International Bank declined the most since Nov. 22, falling 4.4 percent to 21.37 Egyptian pounds, valuing the bank at 12.7 billion pounds ($2.1 billion).

Egypt’s political and financial instability is a “credit negative,” Moody’s said in an e-mailed statement today. The country’s new Cabinet is failing to address popular demands for transition to civilian rule from military rule, it said.