CAIRO: Egyptian share indexes rose more than 1 percent on Tuesday as Arab and other foreign investors bought into the major listed companies, brokers said. Arab investors were net buyers by a margin of about LE 50 million ($8.7 million) and other foreigners by a margin of 12 million, the stock exchange said. There was a lot of foreign buying in the large caps, from mainly Western institutions, in Orascom Telecom and EFG-Hermes, said Hashem Ghoneim of El Nour Securities. Bassim Arida, head of the foreign desk at CIBC brokerage, said that for a change Gulf investors were buying Egyptian stocks even as the Saudi market fell. We ve convinced the Gulfies that they should switch to Egyptian stocks because their market is going down and their ratios are a bit high, he added. Earlier in the year declines in Gulf markets tended to bring down the Egyptian market as Gulf investors sold to cover their losses in their home markets, brokers said. Shares in investment bank EFG-Hermes rose 2.9 percent to LE 44.40 and regional mobile phone operator Orascom Telecom last traded 3 percent up at LE 324.22. The biggest percentage gainer was Media Production City, which climbed 11.8 percent to LE 12.60 on volume of 51 million. Brokers said there were rumors that it was going to sell a large plot of land and a company spokesman was not immediately available to comment. The brokers said the market was bullish about the reporting season for third-quarter results, which starts in earnest on Wednesday with Orascom subsidiary Mobinil. The benchmark Hermes index ended 1.2 percent higher at 58,832.45 points and the widely watched Case 30 index rose 1.1 percent to 6,609.54 points. The broader CIBC 100 index closed up 1.3 percent at 273.45 points.
