Egyptian shares rose for a second day on Monday, led by food and telecommunications companies on bets that defensive stocks may better weather the political crisis.
The EGX 30 Index rose 0.8 percent to 5,251.3 at the 1:30PM close in Cairo. Orascom Construction Industries, the country’s biggest publicly traded builder, rose 2.2 percent. Egyptian Co. for Mobile Services, the country’s oldest mobile network operator, surged 9.4 percent to 149.81 Egyptian pounds.
“We are continuing to see interest in telecoms and food stocks because they are relatively shielded from the instability,” said Mostafa Abdel Aziz, an equity trader at Cairo-based Beltone Securities Brokerage. “But we should start to see the volatility cool down and return to a normal sideways movement very soon as investors start taking profits.”
The EGX 30 gauge has tumbled 26 percent so far this year, making it the world’s worst performer, following unrest that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak. Egyptians voted in favor of constitutional changes on 19 March, paving the way for parliamentary and presidential elections by year-end.
Orascom Construction gained to 226.29 pounds. The EGX 100 Index rose 2.1 percent. Trading was suspended for 30 minutes earlier after the broader EGX 100 measure rose 5.1 percent, exceeding a 5 percent daily limit.
Stock exchange officials will meet the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority, the market regulator, on Monday to discuss lifting trading restrictions, including the limit on daily share moves, bourse chief Mohamed Abdel Salam said by telephone Sunday. Egypt’s bourse was closed for almost two months and trading resumed on 23 March.
