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Egypt stocks surge over 6.5 pct, following Gulf rally

CAIRO - Egypt's benchmark stock index extended gains on Tuesday in line with Gulf markets, climbing over 6.5 percent led by a surge in heavyweight Orascom Construction Industries, traders said.

OCI shares soared 9.52 percent to end at 262.20 Egyptian pounds ($47.24). The benchmark CASE 30 index, which had tumbled nearly 50 percent this year before Monday's rally, jumped 6.55 percent to 6,138.19 points.

The well-watched Hermes index gained 5.63 percent to 544.04 points, while the CIBC index rose 3.61 percent to 312.29 points.

"Across the board, there were a lot of stocks really up. It was a good day," said Teymour el-Derini, a trader at Beltone Financial. "Orascom Telecom and OCI opened very strong, and that helped the market."

Shares in regional mobile operator OT added 9.22 percent to end at 39.80 pounds, while some big cap banking and real estate shares also rose.

Commercial International Bank jumped 5.2 percent to 37.25 pounds, and EFG-Hermes soared 13.19 percent to 30.47 pounds. Real estate developer Talaat Moustafa rose 1.97 percent to 4.67 pounds.

Ezz Steel, which said on Monday it planned to build a flat steel plant in Suez with annual capacity of a million tonnes, rose 1.63 percent to 14.33 pounds.

The firm also said its sales of rebar products would likely grow 13 percent in 2008 on housing construction in Egypt, while flat steel sales would stall.

Dealers said local retail investors were regaining confidence in the market, and that even foreigners, who ended the day as net sellers by over 44 million pounds, had shown some buying interest. Traders expected the rally to continue.

"It is not going to continue with this power, but it will go up," said Amr Saber, trader at Prime Securities.