Egypt index gains on Mobinil offer, OCI jumps

CAIRO, May 19 (Reuters) - Egypt's main index gained 3.8 percent on Tuesday, buoyed by France Telecom's offer for all Mobinil (EMOB.CA) shares, despite both Mobinil and Orascom Telecom (ORTE.CA)(ORTEq.L) being suspended for the session.

Egypt's Capital Markets Authority said it is studying France Telecom's (FTE.PA) offer to buy the remaining shares in Mobinil, without saying what price it had offered to pay. [LJ375081]

"If the deal goes forward, then the market is going to witness a new wave going up," said Wafik Dawood of Naeem Brokerage, adding that appetite had pushed investors into a range of other blue chip firms.

Heavyweight Orascom Construction Industries (OCIC.CA)(OCICq.L) was the most obvious target, gaining 8.2 percent to 206.99 Egyptian pounds ($36.85). Sewedy Cables (SWDY.CA) jumped 6 percent to 63.79 pounds and bank NSGB NSGB.CB added more than 10 percent to 26 pounds.

Fixed line monopoly Telecom Egypt (ETEL.CA) gained 5.9 percent to 19.08 pounds, while OT's London-listed GDR shares (ORTEq.L) gained 3.85 percent to $33.74 by 1257 GMT.

The EGX 30 .EGX30 ended up 217.44 points to 5,979.99 points. The broader EGX 70 .EGX70 added 0.65 percent to 615.18 points. ($1 = 5.6176 Egyptian pounds) (Writing by Alastair Sharp)