By Reuters
CAIRO: Egypt’s main index edged higher, lifted by property stocks as local investors bet on a flood of liquidity when Orascom Telecom Media and Technology completes its planned sale of Mobinil, traders said.
Stocks rebound from a sell-off earlier in the session when institutions and foreign investors unloaded shares, apparently after a senior IMF official said on Monday that no loan to Egypt would be agreed for weeks.
Egypt has asked for a $3.2 billion loan from the IMF to help it stave off a fiscal crisis.
OTMT said last month it had reached a preliminary accord to sell most of its stake in Egyptian telecoms operator Mobinil to fellow shareholder France Telecom.
It said it would give shareholders much of the $1 billion it stands to gain from the Mobinil deal. France Telecom would also offer to buy all other Mobinil shares on the bourse.
“There is an expectation that the Mobinil deal may come through next week,” said Omar Ascar of Cairo Capital Securities. “Everyone is expecting a lot of liquidity to come into the market.”
Among real estate stocks, Talaat Moustafa gained 5.1 percent, Palm Hills 3.1 percent and Amer Group 1.4 percent.
Mobinil, the best performer on the benchmark index this year, inched down 0.1 percent, while OTMT was unchanged.
The EGX30 climbed 0.5 percent to 5,058 points, with most buying by Egyptian retail investors.
