CAIRO: Developer Talaat Moustafa surged about 9 percent on Sunday, helping Egypt s benchmark index CASE 30 extend gains for a second session. Talaat Moustafa gained 8.9 percent to last trade at LE 7.12 ($1.34) on the day before the company starts a buyback move for 4.9 percent of its shares, said Mohamed Kotb, investment manager at Jazira Asset Management. People were front-running the move, he said. The company announced the plan on Tuesday after the share price tumbled about 15 percent on media reports about company chairman Hesham Talaat Moustafa, according to brokers. The company has denied unspecified rumors about the chairman but officials have declined to comment in detail. Overall, the CASE 30 stock index rose 1.3 percent to 8,327.90 points, its second straight session of gains. The index plunged to an 11-month low on Wednesday before rebounding on Thursday on a wave of good quarter results. Another buyback move boosted index heavyweight Orascom Telecom (OT), which also rose 1.6 percent to LE 54.32. OT management said on Thursday they plan to buy 45 million of the company s shares back from the market. The company s global depositary receipts (GDR) also did well on Friday, contrary to Orascom Construction Industries (OCI), Kotb said. OT GDR s closed 0.8 percent higher, while OCI s GDRs ended 1.6 percent lower, weighing on its price in Cairo, brokers said. OCI lost 2 percent to last trade at LE 328. Shares in Ezz Steel also fell 2 percent to LE 64.75 pounds, despite reporting a 63 percent first half increase in net profit on Sunday. People took profits on the stock as it rose more than 10 percent in the last two weeks, Kotb said. The Hermes index .HRMS gained 1.1 percent to 730.93 points, while the broader CIBC index rose 2.4 percent to 402.28 points.
