OCI of Egypt Heads for Biggest Gain in 3 Weeks Before Results

Orascom Construction Industries (OCIC), Egypt’s largest publicly traded builder, headed for the biggest increase in almost three weeks on speculation second-quarter profit may rise 52 percent from a year earlier.

The shares of the Cairo-based company climbed 1.4 percent to 243.26 Egyptian pounds at 12:18 p.m. in Cairo, poised for the biggest daily gain since Aug. 17. That gave the company a market value of 50.3 billion pounds ($8.4 billion). The benchmark EGX 30 Index (EGX30) advanced 0.9 percent.

Orascom Construction, also known as OCI, will report second-quarter profit of 1.22 billion pounds, according to the median estimate of five analysts compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with a profit of 801 million pounds in the second quarter of 2010, according to Bloomberg data. The company is scheduled to report the results tomorrow.