CAIRO: Egyptian stocks surged across the board on Tuesday in line with Asian and European markets, pulling the benchmark CASE 30 index up 5.17 percent. Brokers said that after several weeks of disengagement from the Egyptian market, local and foreign institutions were buying into major companies, restoring confidence among Egyptian retail investors. Advances outnumbered declines by 143 to 20. It s overall sentiment, with the rise in Asia and Europe. We are looking at more optimism, said Hashem Ghoneim, chief executive of El Nour Securities. Mohamed Radwan of Pharos Securities said: We re seeing some buying power from local and foreign institutions. The CASE 30 jumped 4.8 percent in the first six minutes of trading and hovered around the same level throughout the rest of the session. Trading in many stocks was halted temporarily because they hit the 10 percent limit for price movements. Heavily weighted Orascom Construction Industries, the most traded stock by value, rose 3.35 percent to last trade at LE 205.20 ($36.68). Real estate developer Talaat Moustafa, which said on Sunday it expected at least 30 percent growth in net profit in 2008, ended 6.47 percent up at LE 3.62. Telecom Egypt, which reports its third-quarter results on Nov. 13, jumped 6.23 percent to LE 13.82, its highest level since Oct. 7. The CASE 30 index closed at 4,859.32 points and the rival 39-company Hermes index ended 4.71 percent up at 435.11. The broader CIBC index rose 6.79 percent to 260.28.
