CAIRO: Egypt s benchmark index ended higher after two days of losses as blue chips including Orascom Telecom and Orascom Construction rebounded in a low-volume session. Orascom Telecom led, gaining 1.6 percent and Orascom Construction rose 1 percent. Today s sentiment is positive, said Mohamed Kotb of Naeem Holding, but added however that volumes are relatively weak. All 30 constituents of the index barred one end in the green. Sentiments from global markets were also encouraging with Asian stocks hovering near six-week highs as Chinese data showed exports and imports in February were better than expected. EFG-Hermes, Egypt s biggest listed investment bank, advanced 0.9 percent and Commercial International Bank rose 0.8 percent. Traders expect Egypt s market to slowly advance in the coming week, and some say it can cross the psychologically important 7,000 level. The index can go up and break the 7,000 mark, and then we will see new highs, said Hashem Ghoneim of Pyramids Capital. Hopefully, we will cross it, but it will take time. Shares in Mobinil gained 0.8 percent. Egypt s leading mobile operator by subscribers said on Wednesday it will pay a dividend of LE 7.5 ($1.37) per share for the second half of 2009. Overall, the EGX 30 index rose 1.3 percent to 6,776 points. -Reuters
