Egypt stocks rallied on Wednesday, buoyed by positive news regarding two of Egypt’s largest financial institutions.

The benchmark EGX30 index rose 0.8 percent to close at 7,780 points, its highest level in 6 weeks.

"The market has been edging higher for the past couple of sessions on the back of headlines about EFG Hermes' sale of its stake in Credit Libanais and today's news of the approval of Beltone's capital increase,” Wafik Dawood, Portfolio Manager at Compass Capital, told Ahram Online.

The index rose sharply by as much as 1.3 percent in the first hours of trading, before tapering off towards the end of the session, after the Exchange announced that it had approved a EGP 1 billion capital increase requested by Cairo-based Beltone Financial.

Though Beltone’s share price was trading up 10 percent at the time of writing, the trades on the stock were later cancelled by the bourse authorities, citing an article in the capital market law which authorizes the exchange chairman to do so in the case of violations and trades at an "unjustified price," according to a statement on the bourse website and the text of the law on the financial regulator's website.

Investment bank EFG Hermes also announced that it had completed the sale of its 40 percent stake in Credit Libanais to Arab and Lebanese investors for $310 million, in a statement to the bourse on Wednesday.

EFG Hermes stock closed down 0.41 percent at 12.18 percent on Wednesday, after seeing gains earlier in the session.

Market bellwether Commercial International Bank inched up 0.11 percent to close at EGP 44.05.

Second largest listed stock Global Telecom Holding rose 1.92 percent to close at EGP 3.18, while third largest stock Telecom Egypt jumped 2.87 percent to EGP 9.32.

Largest-listed property developer TMG Holding saw its share price climb 2.52 percent to EGP 6.10, while Emaar Misr for Development rose 1.21 percent to EGP 2.50.

Real estate giant Palm Hills Development Company jumped 3.09 percent to EGP 2.67. Six of October Development and Investment (SODIC) was up 1.02 percent to EGP 11.84.

Industry leader Ezz Steel jumped 3.96 percent to EGP 8.41. Juhayna Food Industries climbed 2.88 percent to EGP 7.15.

However, Dawood expects the market to remain in a sideways trend, citing “the effect of Ramadan and the summer” on trading activity.


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