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Market Report: Egypt Bourse gains on a calm Mubarak trial and good company results The main benchmark, EGX30 edged up 0.41 per cent to reach 4,644 points with slight gains in big and medium size shares
Egypt's stock exchange edged up on Monday, as listed companies started posting their second quarter financial results. This was aided by a smooth running of ousted Hosni Mubarak's trial earlier in the morning. "The market started to pick up towards the end of session, when it became clear that the trial would flow smoothly without any negative repercussions," says Mostafa Badra, a capital markets expert. The second session of the former president's trial was aired live in the morning, with orderly proceedings, leaving very little chance of an outbreak of unrest to follow. Market turnover started off weak at the beginning of the three-hour session, recovering only towards the end, adding some LE80 million in around half an hour to total LE305 million. Turnover reached its lowest levels in more than 6 years in yesterday's session. which worried some analysts, showing the possibility of long term stagnation in the market. The broader EGX70, which includes smaller and speculative stocks, witnessed a 0.64 per cent loss in value today. Badra explained that the EGX70 decline could be explained by normal trader speculation and not by the companies' actual performance. The EGX70 decline could be observed when stocks closed: out of 175 traded shares, 101 shares finished in red and only 55 gained. EGX30, on the other hand, was boosted by a high turnover in big stocks. Heavyweight listed Orascom for Construction Industries and Pioneers Holding, both accounting for 21 per cent of the day's total trading, gained 0.45 per cent and 3.11 per cent respectively. "Financial results posted by companies today were generally positive because the bad results were either expected or turned out better than expected," Badra explains. Orascom Telecom, the third largest company on the exchange, posted a 1.55 per cent gain in its stock prices despite posting a 2Q2011 net loss. However, the telecom conglomerate who gained in the first quarter but dropped in the second, reached US$754 million overall, according to the company's official release to the stock exchange today. Similarly, Telecom Egypt, Egypt's landline monopoly, posted a better than expected 15 per cent drop in its second-quarter results. Accordingly, the share price of the second largest company in the stock exchange edged by 0.6 per cent to reach LE14.99. Negative financial results, however, marred the performance of other companies on the exchange: Egypt's top investment bank, EFG Hermes, saw its stock price shed 1.25 per cent today to reach LE17.38, on announcing a year-on-year decline in net profit amounting 19 per cent to reach LE79 million in 2Q2011. Also, the Egyptian Company for Tourism Resorts, historically one of the most active stocks, had its share price drop by 1 per cent to reach LE1.02. The company, selling land to developers, reported a profit fall to around LE335,000 in 1H2011, down from LE1.6 million in 2010. Foreigners made a strong comeback to the market after their share had deteriorated to 7 per cent yesterday, reaching 27 per cent today. They were net sellers, along with Egyptians. Arab investors, on the other hand, were net buyers accounting for around 11 per cent of the market.
