Egypt's Torah Cement posted a 23 per cent rise in 2009 net profit to 341.7 million Egyptian pounds ($62 million), the stock exchange said on Tuesday. The firm made a net profit of 277.2 million pounds in 2008.

The firm's shares jumped as much as 5 percent after the results were released, but had shed some of those gains to trade 1 percent higher by 1000 GMT.

Government stimulus spending on infrastructure and growing demand for housing helped fuel a 25 percent rise in cement demand in 2009, with total production topping 50 million tonnes.

Torah is a subsidiary of Egypt's largest listed cement maker, Suez Cement, which posted a 25 per cent rise in 2009 net profit last month, driven by higher sales in a construction boom.

Suez, a subsidiary of Italcementi, holds approximately 26 per cent of Egypt's market share for grey cement and 42 per cent for white cement.-Reuters