By: Gazette Staff CAIRO, April 23, 2018 – Local stocks ended mixed on Monday, driven by institutional purchases of big-cap shares and sell-offs by individuals. The main index, EGX30, rose by 1.02 per cent to close at 18,080.70 points. The broader indexes EGX70 and EGX100 declined by 0.28 per cent and 0.04 per cent to stand at 863.24 points and 2,273.15 points, respectively. Market capitalisation gained LE4.4 billion to close at LE993.1 billion. Talaat Mostafa, one of the largest property developers, rose 3.3 per cent. EFG-Hermes, an investment bank, gained 5.4 percent and Qalaa Holdings, an investment firm, rose 5.6 percent. "It's a full-fledged bull market," said Wafik Dawood, head of institutional sales at Beltone Financial, according to a Reuters report. Juhayna Food Industries surged 3.9 per cent to 13.50 Egyptian pounds after reporting a 38 per cent year-on-year jump in first-quarter consolidated net profit, on a 20 per cent rise in sales. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's stock market continued a strong upwards trend on Monday because of inflows of foreign funds and strong corporate earnings, while the rest of the Gulf was lackluster. Latest exchange data showed foreigners bought a record $384 million of Saudi Arabian stocks on a net basis last week, anticipating much bigger inflows of funds when Riyadh joins emerging market indexes next year. The Saudi stock index rose 1.0 per cent on Monday, bringing its gains so far this year to 15 per cent. Bank Aljazira was up 5.1 per cent after Bahrain's Ahli United Bank said it acquired a 7.3 per cent stake in the Saudi Islamic lender. Ahli United dropped 1.6 per cent. Saudi Telecom rose 1.5 per cent after it reported first-quarter profit of 2.59 billion riyals ($691 million) versus 2.53 billion riyals last year, broadly in line with analysts' forecasts. Another telecommunications firm, Mobily, jumped 4.5 per cent after it narrowed its first-quarter loss to 93 million riyals from a loss of 163 million riyals a year ago. Meanwhile, Dubai was weak - partly, fund managers say, because money has been flowing from Dubai to the red-hot Saudi market. The index was down 0.6 per cent at a fresh two-year closing low. "Investors' confidence is very weak, which is understandable and due to several factors, like inconsistent dividend policies and sizeable losses at several listed companies," said Tariq Qaqish, managing director of the asset management division at Menacorp. DAMAC Properties tumbled 7.1 percent after the company lowered its annual cash dividend to 15 fils per share from 25 fils. Abu Dhabi's index was up 0.2 per cent on the back of Abu Dhabi National Energy Co, which rocketed 14.6 per cent in its heaviest trade since last August; it has soared in the past month, partly because of strength in global energy prices.
