Reuters/Cairo/Dubai

 

An exterior view of the new building of the Egyptian stock exchange, in Smart Village, Cairo, yesterday. According to media reports, the headquarters of the Egyptian stock exchange will be relocated to Smart Village, a district dedicated to IT and telecommunications enterprises on the Cairo-Alexandria desert road, but trading will continue in the old building in downtown Cairo. The Egyptian stock exchange was established in 1883, and is considered one of the oldest in the Middle East and the world

Telecom stocks lifted Egypt’s bourse for a second day yesterday after France Telecom finalised a deal to buy most of Orascom Telecom Media and Technology’s (OTMT) stake in Mobinil, and most Gulf bourses also rose.
The deal, yet to be approved by the Egyptian regulator, will earn OTMT €1.5bn ($1.97bn). The regulator’s chairman said it would give its response next week.
“The news around the telecom sector is pushing the market up,” said Mohamed Radwan of Pharos Securities. “I don’t think there is anything new. It is just reviving memories of telecoms.”
Egypt’s main index climbs 1.8% 4,735 points, with OTMT gaining 5.2% and Mobinil adding 1.2%. Orascom Telecom rose 1.5% and Telecom Egypt climbed 3.1%.
In Dubai, contractor Arabtec helped lift the bourse after it nominated two Aabar executives Aabar as board members, bringing to four the number of board members from the Abu Dhabi government-owned fund.
“Most probably, Aabar will try to favour Arabtec going forward in terms of work flow,” said Sebastien Henin, portfolio manager at The National Investor.
Shares in the contractor rose 0.9%, taking its year-to-date gains to 117%. The Dubai index finished 0.4% higher at 1,679 points, up for a second session in five. The market is up 24% this year.
“There is still some juice in the market due to the fact that a big part of the rally was done by micro-caps but the bluechips didn’t perform very well,” said Henin. “We could have a second leg and... it could be the bluechips outperforming.”
Abu Dhabi’s benchmark dipped 0.4% to its lowest level since February 20.
Elsewhere, Oman’s bourse rallied to a nine-month closing high, with the index up 1.3% at 5,981 points. Raysut Cement jumped 4.5% and Al Jazeera Steel Products added 3.5%.
“The market’s underlying strength was intact and though we didn’t see it perform well in Q1, earnings expectations are a trigger,” said Kanaga Sundar, Gulf Baader Capital Markets head of research.
Analysts were bullish on earnings for industrial firms.
“We see the market touching the 6,000 psychological level soon, with industries sector the major factor. We expect it to post 29% growth year-on-year,” Sundar added.
In Kuwait, the index rose 0.4% 6,189 points, its third straight gain, with National Bank of Kuwait climbing 1.9% and Kuwait Finance House up 2.7%.
The Bahraini measure gained 0.2% to 1,136 points.