Egypt's main index EGX 30 ended flat on Thursday, while EGX 70, which measures 70 of the country's small and mid caps, dipped by 1.24 per cent to 722.37 points, traders said. An Egyptian court ruling accepting an appeal request by property tycoon Hesham Talaat Moustafa, a former chief executive officer of Talaat Moustafa Group, had little impact on the market, they added. Talaat Moustafa, Egypt's largest developer by market value, gained 0.89 per cent, closing at LE7.95 ($1.5). The North African country's benchmark index EGX 30 rose slightly by 0.45 per cent, ending the week's trading at 6,783.83 points. Volume hit LE1.3 billion, according to the Egyptian Exchange. In a related event, Orascom Telecom (OT) said its rights issue was almost fully subscribed, raising more than $790 million for the mobile operator as it challenges an Algerian tax bill. "This was expected because anyone who did not subscribe would have had his shares hugely diluted," Ahmed Adel, a telecom analyst at Naeem, told Reuters. Orascom Telecom said 99.67 perc ent of the 4.3 billion new shares were subscribed at LE1 ($) apiece, leaving 14.5 million shares to be offered from March 7-10. The secondary offering will close on March 8 for holders of the firm's global depositary receipts. The company said the Egyptian regulator approved the second offering for the remaining shares and full detail would be published in Egyptian newspapers on Saturday. The rights issue was launched in part to ensure liquidity while the company fights a $597 million tax bill which World stocks slipped while the euro held above a recent 9-month low against the dollar. The Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) world equity index fell 0.3 per cent after hitting a five-week high on Wednesday. The FTSEurofirst 300 index lost 0.3 per cent, with utility .SX6P and basic resource stocks leading the fall. Emerging stocks fell 0.7 per cent. The dollar rose a quarter per cent against a basket of major currencies. The euro was down 0.2 per cent to $1.3657, having hit a two-week high on Wednesday.
