Pessimism, uncertainty and a lack of confidence were the dominant characteristics of market transactions worldwide, as they continued to weigh down on indices further still. Egypt and the region for their part have their fair share of the international markets hiccup, while attempts are being made to calm the worries of investors while indices show double digit losses, which were in the Kuwaiti case for instance as high as 23 per cent through last week. For its part the Central Bank of Kuwait will propose a bill to parliament to guarantee deposits in the country's commercial banks. A guarantee of bank deposits in Kuwait will make it the second country after the United Arab Emirates that has done so in a bid to shore up confidence. About 20 stock traders demonstrated in front of the Seif Palace, where the Kuwait cabinet sits, to request a meeting with Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to ask him to interfere to contain the losses. In Egypt the CASE30 index lost 24 points through the 10 days ending October 26 to reach 4,568 points, its lowest level since August 2005 with individual investors dominating the transactions driven by panic and fears of further dips. Transactions through Monday and early Tuesday showed a limited improvement, with CASE30 ending a little higher, as foreigners bought in stocks that were very attractively priced. TALAAT MUSTAFA GROUP (TMG): The leading real estate firm posted a net profit of LE1.34 billion in the first nine months of 2008. No comparative figures of 2007 were given by the group, which began trading on the stock exchange last November. TMG, which stole the limelight when its founder and former Chairman Hisham Talaat Mustafa faced charges of commissioning the murder of a Lebanese singer, witnessed a 62 per cent increase in its sales till the end of September, to reach LE13 billion compared to LE8 billion a year earlier. This improvement was driven by sales in the Madinaty project near Cairo, according to a TMG statement. Meanwhile, on the group's activities in tourism, the statement showed that its stakes in net earnings of the Four Seasons Nile Plaza, Sharm El-Sheikh and San Stefano had reached LE188 million, 21 per cent higher than the previous year's figure. Last month, a report by EFG-Hermes on TMG put the fair value of the stock at LE16.2, which is 193.4 per cent higher than its market price of LE5.52, as at the date of the report. Back then EFG-Hermes raised its forecasts for revenues for the whole 2008 fiscal year on the back of changing accounting methods. ORASCOM TELECOM HOLDING (OT): The international mobile network operator signed an agreement with the world's top mobile phone manufacturer Nokia, to provide it with its Internet services. Nokia, which produced 38 per cent of all mobile phones sold worldwide in the third quarter of 2008, is the first handset maker to move strongly into web content services as growth in its traditional market stalls. Nokia is betting on OT's subscriber base of 77 million in Algeria, Pakistan, Egypt, Tunisia, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. In addition, in early 2008 OT acquired a licence in North Korea to operate mobile services. It has signed similar deals with France Telecom's Orange, Spain's Telefonica, and German T-Mobile and Vodafone among others. Moreover, OT finalised an agreement with Western Union, the international money transfer group to introduce remittance services in selected markets. The mobile money transfer service connects mobile operators to Western Union's global hub to undertake cross-border remittances. Some of the countries where Orascom Telecom operates are among the top receivers of remittances in the world. For example, according to the World Bank, Bangladesh received $6.6 billion in remittances in 2007 while Pakistan received $6.1 billion and Egypt received $5.9 billion. EL-SEWEDY CABLES: Construction works at the company's new plant and Adra Industrial Zone, Syria has begun. The new plant comes in line with the company's expansion strategy in Arab and African regions, and has a capital of $5 million and a production capacity of 25,000 units per year. It is specialised in producing electric metres and equipment to meet the demands of the Syrian market. The company said it would postpone its copper smelter project for the time being, due to unfavourable market conditions, as a feasibility study showed a potentially lower- than-expected return on investments due to higher capital expenditures. "We strongly believe in the fundamentals of the project. We just think the timing could be better. Chief Executive Ahmed El-Sewedy said in a statement: "Given the current market conditions, we can achieve better returns on our investments in other projects that we are working on." The smelter has an investment cost of $850 million and is located in Sokhna on the Red Sea, with a projected capacity 300,000 tonnes of copper cathodes a year, as well as other by-products such as sulphuric acid. Compiled by Sherine Abdel-Razek
