Egypt-related investments fell on Wednesday as sentiment turned negative again after demonstrators in Cairo were attacked by pro-government supporters. People on the side of President Hosni Mubarak threw petrol bombs and charged on horses and camels, attacking demonstrators after the army told protesters to clear the streets.

With the country's stock exchange closed for the fourth straight day, the Van Eck Market Vectors Egypt Index exchange-traded fund remained one of the few instruments available to trade the local market.

Volume has surged in the ETF in the last week, even though Van Eck suspended new share creation in the fund on Monday. Trading volume in the ETF neared 650,000 in late afternoon, nearly 10 times its 50-day average. It was down 0.5% after falling as much at 6.1% earlier in the day.

"I don't think people are going into it with the idea that they are looking to hold it for five years, there is a trade in play," said Tom Lydon, president of Global Trends Investments in Newport Beach, Calif.

"There are some that are playing it on the long side and some that are feeling, especially with today's action, that it may get worse before it gets better."

Volatility in the ETF could also be attributed to investors moving in for a quick profit, as opposed to be basing it off the longer-term prospects.

New shares are not being created because Egypt's market is closed, and ETFs "create" new shares in response to demand through additional purchases of the underlying components.

A Van Eck spokesman said investors were using models to try to determine the ETF's value.

"When we saw that they were going to be closed for an extended period of time, we had to suspend creations... any new money we wouldn't be able to put to work," said Ed Lopez, a marketing director at Van Eck in New York, where he is a products manager for the Egyptian ETF.

The ETF has whipsawed in recent sessions as perceptions changed rapidly about the political situation, with both gains and losses nearing 8% over the last 12 sessions as trading volume surged. The ETF is down 9.6% since Jan. 14.

In a note to clients, David Kotok, chief investment officer of Cumberland Advisors in Sarasota, Fla., said the firm was maintaining a cash reserve position as the "contagion in the Middle East is not over," with more violence expected. Cumberland manages several ETF-type portfolios.

"We do not know how much economic damage will be witnessed in global markets and in the incipient global economic recovery," he said.

Other countries in the region continued to feel pressure.

The SPDR S&P ETF for emerging Middle East & Africa shed 0.2%.

The Bank of New York Mellon index of leading Israeli ADRs lost 0.8%. Among Israeli companies traded on U.S. exchanges, Alon Holdings Blue Square Israel fell 2.1% to $8.70, and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries dipped 0.8% to $55.32.