Rumors that the Court of Cassation would accept Hisham Talaat Mustafa's appeal against a death sentence he received earlier for his role in the 2008 murder of Lebanese pop singer Suzanne Tamim helped make his company--the Talaat Mustafa Group (TMG)--the biggest gainer on the Egyptian stock exchange in Thursday's trading session. TMG shares rose by 3 percent to reach LE7.73, their highest value in more than one year. Over the course of the session, transactions were made on 32.9 million TMG shares, worth a total of LE184.9 million. Overall, however, the EGX 30 index fell by 0.82 percent, losing 85 points to close at 6979, as purchases by foreign investors failed to meet concurrent sales by Egyptian and Arab investors. Shares of 117 companies fell for the period vs. 46 gainers. The Egyptian Company for Construction Development, Arab Pharmaceuticals and National Cement all fell by between 3 and 8 percent; Orascom Telecom, Orascom Construction and Hermes Financial Group all fell by between 0.3 and 2 percent. Shares in Egytrans and The Egyptian Bank for Export Development, meanwhile, both rose by between 2 and 10 percent. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
