Egypt’s Suez Cement SUCE.CA reported a 28.8 per cent rise in first-half net profit before minority interest, the stock exchange said on Sunday.

A subsidiary of Italy’s Italcementi, Suez Cement posted a profit of EGP768.99m (US$145.1m), up from EGP597.04m a year earlier, the bourse said. It gave no further details.

Shares in Egypt’s largest cement firm by market value were down 10.1 per cent to EGP40 by 1126 GMT.