CAIRO: Regional mobile phone operator Orascom Telecom rose 5.65 percent on Monday on plans to buy back shares, helping lift main Egyptian stock indexes for the second straight session. Shares in the biggest Arab mobile phone operator by subscribers last traded at LE 36.11 ($6.48) after it said it was planning to buy back 23.59 million shares between Nov. 2 and Jan. 30. The numbers of shares sought by the firm represents some 2.3 percent of total shares, according to Reuters data. It was a combination of the share buyback and higher GDRs (global depositary receipts), said Mohamed Kotb, investment manager at Jazira Asset Management. Dual-listed Egyptian firms often take their cue from global markets, where volumes are much larger. In turn, these heavily weighted stocks usually give direction to the overall market. Traders noted that market volatility drove some investors to lock profits in the last hour of trade, causing the benchmark CASE 30 to trim some of the gains it had made earlier. The index, which had lost 52.6 percent of its value in the year to Sunday s close, rose 3.21 percent to 5,152.55 points. The rival Hermes index added 3.53 percent to 466.52 points, while the broader CIBC index gained 3.1 percent to 287.44 points. Real estate developer Talaat Moustafa Group rose 2.13 percent to last trade at LE 3.84. The company has the biggest land bank in Egypt and it is extremely undervalued, said Hashem Ghoneim, chief executive of El Nour Securities. EFG-Hermes, Egypt s biggest investment bank, bucked the trend, falling 3.64 percent to LE 24.86 after it said merger talks with Lebanon s Bank Audi had been called off. Shares in the bank had climbed over 15 percent in the last two sessions. Kotb said news that merger talks with Bank Audi ended unsuccessfully probably provided a trigger for investors who had earlier bought the stock to lock their profits.
