Stocks rose on Sunday, driven by strong interest in Medinet Nasr Housing and Alexandria Real Estate Investment, brokers said. But two other housing and real estate stocks, Heliopolis Housing and Sixth of October Investment and Development (Sodic), fell back after early gains. Orascom Telecom and sister company Orascom Construction Industries made a smaller contribution to the overall rise. Yasser Hassanein of Dynamic Securities said Medinet Nasr rose on its decision last week to buy back treasury stock worth LE 50 million ($8.8 million). The board has not said when it will buy or at what price. Alexandria Real Estate, which is dominated by entrepreneur Talaat Mustafa, benefited from a brokerage report identifying it as the most promising Egyptian real estate firm, he added. But another report, by HC Securities, set a target price of LE 235.40, way below Sunday s closing price of LE 296.66.
Housing stocks rose early in the session, extending a rally which started when land fetched high prices in government auctions, but some of those stocks ended the day down. Heliopolis Housing, the second most heavily traded stock, last traded 2.1 percent down at LE 568.99 and Sodic, despite good first quarter results, slipped 0.6 percent to LE 155.76. Sodic made a net profit of LE 50.52 million in the first quarter of 2007, after a loss in the same quarter of 2006, the stock exchange said in a statement. The benchmark Hermes index closed 0.67 percent up at 66,802.14 points, and the well-watched Case 30 index rose 0.76 percent to 7,481.03 points. The broader CIBC index climbed 1.3 percent to 337.43 points.
