CAIRO: Egypt s main stock indexes each gained more than a percent on Sunday as housing stocks led by Medinet Nasr Housing soared amid speculation land prices would rise at an upcoming auction, traders said. It s just the housing sector in general. There has been a lot of buying power across the board and all the housing stocks are going up, said Sarah Tolba of Delta Securities, adding that retail investors were behind the buying. Shares in Medinet Nasr rose 15 percent to last trade at 207.58 Egyptian pounds ($36.48), while Heliopolis Housing jumped 25.2 percent to 379 pounds. Shares in Cairo Housing gained 6.3 percent to end at 17.25 pounds. The housing rally began on news last week that the Housing Ministry is expected to make at least $4.6 billion from the ongoing auction of eight large tracts of land, for which it has short-listed three companies for each tract. Traders said the auction was set to resume on Monday. The high prices offered for the land are driving brokerages to adjust their valuations of Egyptian real estate companies, and Heliopolis Housing is the one with the most land close to the areas that are up for auction, brokers said. Among the gainers was also United Housing whose shares were up 23.1 percent to 21.99 pounds. Overall, the benchmark Hermes index closed 1.2 percent higher at 67,039.16 points, a fresh one-year high, while the broader CIBC index rose 1.2 percent to 325.19 points. The well-watched Case 30 index gained 1.2 percent to 7,598.67 points. Shares in Vodafone Egypt were flat at 90 pounds after the company on Thursday reported a 48 percent rise in full year 2006/7 net profit to 2.5 billion pounds.
