CAIRO – The Egyptian government accepted bids for $1.070 billion worth of one-year dollar-denominated treasury bills at an auction on Sunday with an average yield of 2.593 percent, the central bank said. The total bids amounted to $1.380 billion. The Ministry of Finance had set the issue size at $1 billion. The minimum yield was 2.54 percent and the maximum was 2.6 percent. The bank introduced dollar-denominated T-bills in November 2011 after a popular uprising chased away most foreign investors. The government has mainly turned to the local money market to finance its public deficit but the ability of local banks to lend the government Egyptian pounds has been stretched to its limit. Meanwhile, Egyptian shares rose to the highest in three years as EFG-Hermes Holding SAE's buyback boosted the stock by almost the daily limit and before a referendum this week. The benchmark EGX 30 Index climbed 1.7 percent to 7,095.92 at 12:39 p.m. in Cairo, the highest since before the start of the uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in January 2011. EFG-Hermes, the country's biggest investment bank, surged 9.9 percent to 10.76 pounds and Commercial International Bank Egypt SAE, the nation's biggest publicly traded lender, headed for the highest close since 1997. “EFG-Hermes is one of the market's bellwether stocks,” said Tariq Hussein, co-head of MENA Sales Trading at Cairo-based CI Capital. “The surge in shares of EFG-Hermes is inevitably having a knock-on effect across the board and buoying market sentiment.” Twenty-four of the gauge's shares advanced after the country's biggest investment bank said Jan. 9 it would buy back 1 billion pounds ($144 million) of its stock, paying investors 11.5 pounds a share in the first phase. Egypt's benchmark stock index has gained 4.7 percent this month after climbing 24 percent last year. Egyptians head to the polls this week to vote on a new military-backed constitution amid a boycott by Islamists that back ousted president Mohamed Morsi. The referendum would pave the way for parliamentary and presidential elections this year, according to the military's plan. — Agencies
