Egypt’s tobacco monopoly climbs

Egypt’s state-controlled tobacco monopoly climbed to the highest in three months as demand for the stock at a private placement was higher than the shares on offer. The government on Feb. 28 launched the private placement of 4.5 percent in Eastern Tobacco - a sale that was covered 1.8 times, local media cited Public Enterprise Minister Hisham Tawfik as saying.

The offering is part of a long-delayed program to sell additional stakes in key state-run companies.

The stock, which has the second-largest weighting on the benchmark EGX30 index, rose as much as 5.9 percent in Cairo. It was one of the biggest contributors to the benchmark index’s 0.9 percent advance.