Egypt shares up 1.5 pct, turnover surges on economic optimism

Positive news for the Egyptian economy fuels a buying spree, lifting the main index near its highest level in 18 months

Egypt's stocks charted strong gains on Tuesday, bringing the main index and turnover near their highest levels since the country's popular uprising in January 2011.
Positive news about the Egyptian economy, US debt relief and improvement of foreign currency reserves, all seemed to give investors the confidence to inject new funds into the market.
The main EGX30 index gained a further 1.5 per cent to close the day at 5,541 points. The benchmark has soared 53 per cent since the beginning of 2012.
Trading volumes reached some LE884 million ($147 million) on Tuesday, a level rarely seen in 14 months.
"The market now is testing relatively new territories, which we haven't since June 2011," said Ashraf Abdel Aziz, head of institutions sales at Arabeya Online Securities.
The EGX30 hit 5,613 points on 14 June 2011, but fell sharply in the months afterwards, bottoming out at 3,586 in December 2011.
"Now the case is different, the market is ready to receive good news and act upon it," added Abdel Aziz, singling out news reports that the US is planning to grant Egypt $1 billion in debt relief.
The acquisition of Egypt's National Societe Generale (NSGB) and a merger between EFG-Hermes and Qinvest have also sent positive signals about Egypt's economy to investors, Abdel Aziz added.
From the 185 shares traded on Tuesday, 136 finished in the green while 41 lost value. The rest remained unchanged.
The broader EGX70, which measures the performance of smaller shares, saw milder growth of 0.68 per cent, finishing at 505 points.
Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) and Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH) were the most active shares, seeing LE99.5 million apiece in turnover. Their values grew 2.25 and 3.58 per cent to close at LE284.03 and LE3.74 per share, respectively.
"Some shares are more active than others because they are at price levels we haven't seen for a while. So those holding them want to sell and others want to get in," Abdel Aziz said.
EFG-Hermes saw LE62 million in turnover, gaining 1.77 per cent to finish the session at LE12.65 per share.
The investment bank is continuing to gain from news that it will distribute LE4.4 per share after approving the tie-up between EFG-Hermes and Qinvest.
Commercial International Bank (CIB), Egypt's largest private bank, saw its share price hold firm at LE31.67, but registered LE42 million in turnover.
Egyptian investors made up 75 per cent of the day's total volume, and were the main buyers at LE57 million. Non-Arab foreign investors contributed LE45 million to the session, and net-sold LE45 million.
Individual investors, as opposed to institutions, made up 72 per cent of the session's total volume.
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