[2008-02-01]  Big caps push Egyptian bourse up, EFG-Hermes leads
Investment bank EFG-Hermes led Egyptian big caps up on Thursday, boosting the market's main indexes as foreign investors were buying into the market, brokers said.

EFG-Hermes, which was the most heavily traded stock by turnover, gained 2.4 percent to last trade at 58.90 Egyptian pounds ($10.61).

"The stock was over-sold lately, going down from 68 pounds (on Jan. 13) to 57 pounds, which was very attractive to buy at," said Mohamed Kotb, Investment Manager of Jazira Asset Management.

Overall, the benchmark CASE 30 index rose 0.8 percent to 10,318.06 points, breaking through resistance at 10,250 points, Kotb said. The Hermes index gained 0.9 percent to 91,413.94 points while the broader CIBC index was 1.1 percent higher at 421.80 points.

Traders said market heavyweight Orascom Telecom also helped boost the market after it said on Wednesday it acquired the first mobile licence in North Korea and would invest $400 million on infrastructure and licence fees over the next three years.

Shares in OT rose 0.6 percent to 82.99 pounds. Other big caps were also in the green, with Commercial International Bank rising 3.3 percent to 93.80 pounds and Ezz Steel gaining 2.4 percent to 65.75 pounds.

Egypt's fixed-line monopoly Telecom Egypt jumped 3.5 percent to 21.86 pounds after the company said it had signed a $125 million contract with the French Alcatel-Lucent to build a communication submarine cable connecting Egypt and France.

Shares of Mobinil, Egypt's largest mobile operator by subscribers, were flat at 219.99 pounds a day after the firm posted a net profit rise of 20 percent in 2007 to 1.8 billion Egyptian pounds.

"The results were no surprise as they came within market expectations, so it didn't affect the stock much," Kotb said.

Source: © Reuters 2008.