CAIRO - For the fifth day in a row, Egypt's main index gained on Monday as shares in Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) and EFG-Hermes led the rise, traders said. Orascom Construction Industries gained 1.03 per cent to LE280.55 per share. EFG-Hermes, the country's largest investment bank by market value, rose by 1.24 per cent to LE32.54 per share. The North African country's benchmark index EGX 30 rose slightly by 0.19 per cent to 6,841.59 points. But the EGX 70, which measures 70 of the country's small and mid caps, slipped by 0.93 per cent to 686.08 points. Palm Hills jumped by 3.01 per cent to LE6.17 per share. Orascom Telecom, the largest Arab mobile operator by subscribers, fell by 0.23 per cent to LE4.34 per share. The firm said on Sunday its third-quarter revenues were $1.07 billion, down about a fifth from a year earlier, but in line with market expectations, according to Reuters. In a related event, ceramics maker Lecico Egypt posted a five per cent increase in third-quarter net profit, reversing a decline in the second quarter when it was hit by costs from a fire at an export warehouse. The company reported net profit of LE30.9 million. Revenue for the third quarter fell seven per cent to LE254 million as it continued to feel the impact of the fire, Lecico said in a statement. The company said it benefited from a weaker Egyptian pound and a five per cent increase in the average price of its sanitary products compared to the first half. Distribution and administration costs fell 12 percent. Meanwhile, Egyptian Gulf Bank said its net profit for the first nine months of 2010 jumped 31.2 per cent year-on-year. Net profit was LE74.0 million, up from from LE56.4 million a year earlier, it said in a statement released by the Egyptian Exchange. Globally, gold hit a new high, stoked by rising inflation expectations following the Federal Reserve's return to asset buying, and the dollar gained in a hang-over from last week's relatively upbeat US jobs data. World stocks as measured by MSCI were down 0.2 per cent after last week hitting levels last reached prior to the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Emerging market stocks were flat. Gold briefly powered to a record above $1,398 an ounce in Asia, mainly driven by concerns that the Fed's renewed quantitative easing program will stoke underlying inflation. The metal later was down about a quarter of a per cent. Financial markets greeted Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou's decision not to call early national elections with relief with bond yield spreads narrowing and shares rallying, led by banks. Papandreou's threat of snap polls if his ruling socialists fared poorly in Sunday's municipal polls had unnerved markets, pressuring equities and contributing to more than 200 basis points of spread widening as investors braced for political risk in a bad week generally for peripheral euro zone countries.
