CAIRO: A surge of buying by institutional investors on market heavyweight Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) saw Egypt s benchmark CASE 30 index rise more than 3 percent on Tuesday. OCI actually led the market today. There was huge buying power apparent on the stock, mainly by foreign institutions, said Ahmed Abu Taleb, a trader at Pharos Securities. OCI shared jumped 8.1 percent to LE 136.90 ($24.81) per share. Abu Taleb said foreign investors were attracted to OCI shares because they were trading cheap, given an upside potential of 150 percent, and because they wanted to take advantage of a planned share buyback. OCI said on Dec. 14 that it planned to buy back up to 2 million of its share by Jan. 13, representing about 0.9 percent of the company s total stock, but the company had not yet bought any shares as of Sunday. Many Egyptian companies have taken advantage of recent sharp declines in stock prices to buy back shares from the market. Non-Arab foreign investors accounted for more than 22 percent of the day s turnover and were the day s only net buyers, by more than LE 72 million. But local funds were also active, buying into a number of blue chips, including Orascom Telecom and Commercial International Bank. I think they re starting to build up new positions for the new year, said Dina Negm of Delta Rasmala Securities. Orascom Telecom gained 2.28 percent to LE 29.15 per share, while Commercial International Bank rose 4.32 percent to LE 36.25 per share. The CASE 30 ended 3.13 percent up at 4,487.47 points, while the Hermes index gained 2.77 percent to 419.19 points. The broader CIBC index gained 1.21 percent to 284.3 points. -Reuters
