CAIRO: Egyptian shares rose on Thursday, with foreign buying in market heavyweights Orascom Telecom and Orascom Construction Industries pushing up the indexes, traders said.
The Orascoms were all performing very well today, due to foreign interest, said Mohamed Ezz of Delta Securities.
Orascom Construction Industries, which on Thursday reported a 53.5 percent rise in its first-quarter net profit, rose 1.3 percent to close at LE 380.
Orascom Telecom, which on Tuesday said it would buy back 37.7 million of its own shares in the coming month, rose 1.6 percent to close at LE 75.31.
Ezz said shares in investment bank EFG-Hermes rose on rumors the state-owned Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which bought an 8 percent stake in the company this month, was looking to increase its stake.
The rumors sparked a flurry of interest on the share, with buying across the board that saw it close 5.4 percent up at LE 41.50 per share, the day s most traded share by value.
Some housing shares continued to drop as investors reaped profits from a rally after land fetched high prices at government auctions.
Heliopolis Housing and Medinet Nasr Housing led the day s losses for a second day in a row, closing 6.5 percent down at LE 477 and 6.3 percent down at LE 310, respectively.
Overall, the Hermes index gained 0.6 percent to an all-time high of 69,472.88, while the well-watched Case 30 index rose 1 percent to 7,769.63 points. The broader CIBC index closed 0.3 percent higher at a new all-time high of 357.99 points.
