Egyptian shares rose on Monday to more than three-month highs on improved retail sentiment, while Raya Holding jumped on news it had received three offers for stakes in its telecom unit, traders said, according to Reuters. Shares in Raya Holding for Technology and Communications rose 6.4 percent to finish at 14.18 Egyptian pounds ($2.47) on rumours, confirmed by the stock exchange shortly before the market close, that international firms were interested in its telecoms unit. The stock exchange said on its Web site (www.egyptse.com) that Raya had reported that three multinational companies had submitted offers to buy stakes in the company's subsidary, Raya Telecom. The offers ranged from bids for a minority interest to a full acquisition. A decision on the offers was not expected until sometime in the first half of September. "There was a rebound in the market today because of the optimism in the large caps, which is a healthy move," said Mohamed Kotb of Gezira Asset Management. "Raya was up after it was confirmed that there is a stake that will be sold. But we had this as a rumour for quite some time," he added. Overall, the benchmark Hermes index was 1.4 percent higher at 53,280.02 points while the broader CIBC index edged up 0.8 percent to 232.53 points. The well-watched Case 30 index was up 1.3 percent at 6,126.46 points. Investment bank EFG-Hermes, the day's most heavily traded stock by turnover, dipped 1 percent to end at 41.77 pounds. "EFG-Hermes is expected to remain stagnant for the next couple of days until we come close to their annual meeting results next week," said Yasser Hassanein of Dynamic Securities. Dealers said they were anxious to see whether EFG-Hermes' shareholders, meeting on Sunday, would approve an offer by Abraaj Capital of the United Arab Emirates to buy a 25 percent stake. They were also anxious to see what EFG-Hermes would do with the money raised. On a technical level, traders said the Case 30 index had technical support at the 6,000-point level and was expected to rise to meet resistance at around 6,400 points.
