CAIRO: Egypt’s main stock index added 1.6 percent by the close, after the Talaat Moustafa Group’s court case was postponed and Orascom Telecom said its Algerian accounts have not been frozen.
Talaat Moustafa gained 0.9 percent. The firm, which is the country’s biggest listed developer, is challenging a ruling that a land sale deal agreed with a body under the housing ministry was illegal.
Traders do not expect the firm’s Madinaty project on Cairo’s outskirts to be cancelled even if the ruling is upheld by the higher court, suggesting a fine or revised contract as more likely outcomes.
Builders and developers made some of index’s biggest gains, with SODIC adding 3.4 percent and Palm Hills Developments jumping 5.6 percent. Palm Hills said on Monday it had appointed a Dubai-based firm to manage a Red Sea hotel.
Orascom Telecom gained 0.2 percent responding to a bourse request for clarification of media reports, said its accounts in Algeria had not been frozen and it does not face obstacles to the supply of SIM cards.
