Egypt stocks up on housing, real estate prices

CAIRO: Egyptian stock prices rose on Monday with continuing interest in the housing and real estate sector because of high prices at a government land auction. Ezz Steel, the most heavily traded stock, also gained 3.3 percent to last trade at LE 53.00 because of aggressive foreign buying and mobile phone operator Mobinil rose 1.3 percent to LE 159 after better than expected first-quarter results released on Sunday. Housing and real estate proved to be the best performing sector … driven by projections of high revenue, said Mohamed Radwan of Delta Securities. He linked this to the Ministry of Housing s auction of eight large tracts of land, and expectations that they will bring in at least 26 billion pounds. The ministry has shortlisted three companies for each of the tracts. Alexandia Real Estate Investment, one of Egypt s biggest private housing companies, jumped 5 percent to close at LE 184.40 and Heliopolis Housing ended 10.2 percent higher at LE 263.01. Another frequently traded real estate company, Sixth of October for Investment and Development (SODIC), gained 1.6 percent to last trade at LE 157.88. Mobinil said on Sunday it made net income of LE 397 million in the first quarter of 2007, 28 percent up on LE 311 million in the same quarter of 2006. EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) were LE 851 million, 21 percent up on LE 702 million in the January-March period of 2006, it said. But the results had little effect on regional operator Orascom Telecom, which owns 33 percent of the Mobinil operating company. Overall, the benchmark Hermes index closed 0.23 percent higher at 65,582.80 points. The widely watched Case 30 index gained 0.22 percent to end at 7,428.19 points. The broader CIBC index rose 0.51 percent to 316.62 points.