Egypt bourse still in green as Ramadan begins

Egypt's benchmark EGX30 index continued its rise on Wednesday, gaining 0.66 percent to sit at 5,325 points. The main index had jumped 3.26 percent on Tuesday, after Egypt's interim president Adly Mansour issued a widely-anticipated constitutional declaration on Monday evening that set a timetable for constitutional reform and elections. "You would have expected a greater rise, given the aid offered to Egypt yesterday," Issa Fathy, vice president of the securities division at Cairo's Chamber of Commerce, told Ahram Online. On Tuesday, oil-rich Saudi Arabia offered $5 billion in aid to Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates pitched in with $3 billion in grants and loan. Egypt's foreign currency reserves, which have been in near-constant decline since the country's January 2011 revolution, had begun to pick up in April and May of this year before falling again to $14.9 billion. Fathy attributes the modest rise to profit-taking by investors who sought to benefit from the sharp rise in the market on Tuesday and to "political struggles, which have delayed the formation of the new government and which dampen investor appetites." Egypt's Salafist Al-Nour Party had objected the appointment of liberal opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei as head of the caretaker government earlier this week, leading interim president Adly Mansour to appoint economist Hazem El-Beblawi for the position instead on Tuesday. Turnover was strong on Wednesday, "especially for the first day in the holy month of Ramadan," remarked Fathy, recording LE727.6 million in total. Gaining stocks accounted for 132 out of 171 listed stocks. The real estate sector made significant gains, with Palm Hills Development Company rising 4.74 percent, TMG Holding 4.01 percent, and Six of October Development & Investment (SODIC) 1.84 percent. Egyptian Financial Group-Hermes Holding Company was also up by 3.36 percent. Blue chips Orascom Construction Industries and Commercial International Bank both registered losses of 0.24 percent and 0.43 percent respectively, at a session in which non-Arab foreign investors sold a net LE60.1 million, while Egyptians were the only net buyers of some LE62 million. Orascom Telecom was also in the red, sliding 1.79 percent. The broader EGX70 index was up 2.67 percent at Wednesday's session, which closed early at 1:30pm, according to the Ramadan schedule. From : Ahram Online