CAIRO: Egyptian stocks gained ground on Thursday as Gulf markets recovered and confidence rose among retail investors who panicked earlier in the week, brokers said. Telecom Egypt rose 3 percent, with much of the increase coming after news it is raising prices for subscriptions and local calls, they said. The partially privatized company ended at LE 16.29 ($2.83). Egyptian American Bank climbed on its 2005 net profits, which at LE 318 were 32 percent above those for 2004, the brokers added. The shares last traded up 4.3 percent at LE 49.95. But the biggest factors were the recovery of confidence in the Gulf, where stocks bounced back from their sharpest decline in years, helped by government intervention in the market. Gulf investors, who account for about a third of the business on the Egyptian exchange, helped trigger a major panic on Tuesday when they started selling their Egyptian assets. We ve seen a rebound in the Gulf and we follow pace. Purchasing power started to appear after Tuesday, said Mohamed Radwan of Delta Securities. When investors saw that stability had returned and when the Saudi market went up by the maximum 5 percent, then they were less panicky and regained confidence, said Mohamed Kutb of Prime Asset Management. Institutions bought because prices looked attractive at the levels they have now reached, he added. The benchmark indices are about 20 percent off the highs they hit in early February. The Hermes index ended 335.71 or 0.6 percent higher at 55,656.76, while the Case 30 rose 1 percent or 61.22 points to 6,360.73. The broader CIBC index also gained 1.1 percent, closing at 222.18 points. Investment bank EFG-Hermes, the most traded share and one of those hard hit early in the week, last traded 5.2 percent higher at LE 50.40. Reuters
