CAIRO: Housing and real estate stocks were the prime winners in an otherwise quiet Sunday trade as the main Egyptian index added 0.3 percent to close at 6,697 points.
The hype today is mainly on the housing sector on the back of Egyptian Resorts selling their piece of land, said Ashraf Akhnoukh from CIBC brokerage.
Egyptian Resorts says the sale for $13.3 million of land on the Red Sea coast indicates renewed appetite in Egypt since Dubai s property market deflated.
Shares in the real estate firm ended 3.2 percent higher.
The stock had a 6 percent rally this morning, dragging most of the (housing) stocks with it, especially SODIC, Akhnoukh added.
SODIC gained 3.7 percent. It is the best of the housing stocks in terms of fundamentals and it looks good technically, he added.
Investment bank EFG-Hermes rose 1.5 percent. The firm s shares jumped sharply on Friday after it said it was in talks to sell its stake in Lebanon s Bank Audi.
Orascom Construction Industries added 0.4 percent. -Reuters
