Big-cap Egyptian shares rose on Sunday with investors showing interest in Orascom Telecom (OT) on expectations the regional mobile phone operator will announce strong 2004 results, traders said. OT's announcement that the firm will near triple investment in its Pakistan operation and nearly double investment in Iraq also encouraged investors, the traders added.
Three analysts forecast OT would report net profit in a range of 1.9 billion-2.3 billion Egyptian pounds ($328 million-$397 million) for 2004, compared to 700 million pounds in 2003.
OT last traded up 14.63 pounds, or 3.5 percent, at 437 pounds.
The benchmark Hermes index ended up 771.65 points, or 2.1 percent, at 37,065.19 points, but still off an all time high of over 40,000 points hit last week.
The broader CIBC index fell 0.02 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 150.80 points.
The traders also said Arab Cotton Ginning, the day's busiest stock, rose on news the company was looking to acquire state-controlled textile firms. Company officials were not immediately available for comment. The firm's stock last traded up 0.87 pounds, or 8.7 percent, at 10.88 pounds.
Asec last traded up 0.30 pounds, or 1 percent, at 29.84 pounds.
interbank rate slips
The median overnight interbank rate on the Egyptian pound slipped to 10-1/4 percent on Sunday from 10-1/2 percent on Thursday in a quiet market as traders waited for the results of a bond auction.
Traders said they wanted to see the results of Monday's bond auction worth 2 billion Egyptian pounds ($345 million) to gauge which way the market was heading.
Three out of 15 banks contacted by Reuters dealt in overnight money at rates of between 10 and 10-1/4 percent compared to rates of between 9 and 11 percent in Thursday's session.
One bank dealt in one-week money at a rate of 10-1/4 percent. In the previous session, one out of nine banks contacted by Reuters dealt one-week money at rates of between 10-1/4 and 10-1/2 percent.
The overnight CAIBOR rate fell to 10.3155 percent from 10.3750 percent on Thursday. The one-week CAIBOR rate fell to 10.6905 percent from 10.7381 percent in the previous session.
On the foreign exchange market, the pound was unchanged against the dollar compared to Thursday's close, trading at 5.7959 pounds at 1100 GMT.
The pound has stabilised at around 5.80 pounds to the dollar after strengthening from more than 6.20 pounds since December, when Egypt officially launched a dollar interbank market.
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