[2007-10-05]  Foreign buying sends Egyptian bourse up
Main Egyptian indexes inched up on Thursday after two sessions in the red, supported by buying from foreign investors in the banking sector, brokers said.

Local and Arab investors were net sellers. Foreigners, who made up 27 percent of purchases, were net buyers.

"They focused on the financial sector as the execution of AlWatany Bank deal is approaching," said Tarek el-Khayyat of Delta Securities.

Shares in AlWatany Bank, Egypt's third-largest lender by market value, paced gains, rising 1.4 percent up to 76 pounds.

National Bank of Kuwait won a bid in August to take a 51 percent stake in AlWatany for $522 million.

EFG Hermes, Egypt's largest investment bank, gained 0.1 percent to last trade at 47.71 Egyptian pounds ($8.57).

Other financial stocks also were in the green. Naeem Holding rose 0.8 percent to $2.45 and Egypt Kuwait Holding gained 4.7 percent to $2.25.

Egyptian Resorts Company rose after two sessions of declines after an auction to sell the government's 24 percent stake in the company was delayed indefinitely.

The stock rose about 1 percent to 11.64 pounds.

"Investors were still anxious about the reasons behind the delay," said Mustafa Badra of National Securities. "People didn't really deal in the stock as the trading volume of the stock today was flat at 2 million pounds," he added.

Overall, the benchmark Case 30 index gained 0.2 percent to 8,770.77 points while the Hermes index was 0.1 percent up to 76,964.26 points. The broader CIBC index shed 0.2 percent to 387.26 points.

Shares in Orascom Telecom were 0.6 percent down to last trade at 73.55 pounds while Orascom Construction Industries lost 0.7 percent to 467 pounds.

"The two stocks were traded sideways in a very low trading volume," said el-Khayyat.

($1 = 5.57 Egyptian pounds)


Source: © Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.