Investment bank EFG-Hermes and Orascom Projects, Tourism and Development (OPTD) drove Egyptian stocks to new highs on Sunday amid expectations both firms will post strong results, traders said. The benchmark Hermes index ended up 555.31 points, or 1.4 percent, at a new closing high of 39,840.05 slightly off an all-time high of 39,960.48 points hit during the session.
The broader CIBC index ended up 2.12 points, or 1.3 percent, at 161.84 points.
EFG-Hermes officials were not immediately available for comment. The firm is widely expected to benefit from new business, such as financial advisory work, as the government pushes ahead with a privatisation programme.
EFG-Hermes' stock last traded up 4.14 Egyptian pounds ($0.71), or 17.4 percent, at 27.95 pounds.
The traders said OPTD was expected to post strong results but also said the stock was attracting investor attention after a report in al-Alam al-Youm daily newspaper on Sunday that the firm was planning a capital increase.
OPTD last traded up at a new closing high of 14.70 pounds, or 32.5 percent, at 59.95 pounds, down from an all-time high during the session of 60 pounds.
interbank rate rises
The median overnight interbank rate on the Egyptian pound rose to 11 percent on Sunday from 7 percent on Thursday ahead of the end of a central bank period for calculating banks' reserves, traders said.
The two-week period ends on Monday and a new one begins on Tuesday. Traders say increased demand from banks for funds towards the end of the period traditionally drives up rates.
Five out of 9 banks contacted by Reuters dealt in overnight money at rates between 10-1/4 and 11-1/2 percent compared with rates of between 8 and 11 percent on Thursday.
One of the banks dealt in one-week money at a rate of 10-3/4 percent. In the previous session, one bank out of nine dealt one-week money at a rate of 10-1/2 percent.
The overnight CAIBOR rate rose to 10.0952 percent from 10.0357 on Thursday. The one-week CAIBOR rate also rose to 10.5357 from 10.4524 percent in the previous session.
On the foreign exchange market, the pound last traded at 5.7975 pounds against the greenback at 1200 GMT, compared with Thursday's weighted average closing of 5.7978 pounds.
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.