CAIRO: Stock indexes rose 0.8 percent in light trade on Monday despite a lack of market-moving news from a big investment conference attended by the key economic ministers. Brokers said they were taken by surprise when the market rebounded from an initial slump driven by falls in the prices of London-listed GDRs. We were looking to see it drop and it did drop below 6,000 (on the Case 30 index). Then it turned around quite surprisingly, said Yasser Hassanein of Dynamic Securities. Sixth of October Development and Investment hit the upper limit of 5 percent change in a single session on a board agreement to increase the company s capital by selling 10 million shares to outside investors. At Monday s closing price of LE 113.91 ($19.84) a share, the new shares would be worth LE 1.14 billion. A company statement said a study would decide a fair price for the shares and investment bank EFG-Hermes would be advisers for the offer. The new capital will finance an expansion of company operations including the purchase of 230 acres (93 hectares) of land in Sixth of October City for LE 600 million, it said. But brokers said they had received no market-moving feedback from the annual Euromoney conference, at which Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali tried to promote foreign investment in the country. EFG-Hermes was the most heavily traded stock, as on many days, and rose 1.4 percent to last trade at LE 42.10. Tobacco monopoly Eastern Company, which said on Sunday that its net after-tax profit rose 12 percent in the 2005/6 financial year, fell back 2.3 percent to LE 290. Brokers said the results were within expectations. The widely watched Case 30 ended the session up 0.8 percent at 6,046.82. The benchmark Hermes index and the broader CIBC index also rose 0.8 percent, at 53,091.52 points and 237.96 points respectively. Reuters
Stocks slip in low-volume trade
