Driven by foreign buying, Egyptian indexes gained on Wednesday, ending a two-day losing streak, traders said. Boosted by big caps, Egypt's main index gained more 84 points, they added. The North African country's benchmark index EGX 30 rose by 1.27 per cent, ending the day's trading at 6,775.8 points. The EGX 70 index, which measures 70 of the country's small and mid caps, jumped 3.32 per cent to 713.87 points. Volume hit LE863 million ($158 million), according to the Egyptian Exchange. Orascom Construction Industries, Egypt's largest builder by market value, inched up by 0.81 per cent, closing at LE243.44 per share. Orascom Telecom, the largest Arab mobile operator by subscribers, jumped by 2.62 per cent to LE6.27 per share. In a related event, Mobinil will pay a dividend of LE7.5 per share for the second half of 2009, the company said. This brings the total dividend for the whole of 2009 to LE9.5. "There will be LE750 million of dividends for shareholders," Chairman Alex Shalaby was quoted by Reuters as saying yesterday. He added that employees would also be paid LE145 million as a profit share. Meanwhile, world stocks measured in the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) All-Country World Index inched up 0.1 per cent to 300.72, hovering near a six-week high of 301.61 reached on Monday, though they were still up 66 percent from a low hit one year ago. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was flat, though Greece's share benchmark advanced 1.8 per cent as worries over the country's debt problems eased after Athens last week announced more austerity measures and secured 5 billion euros of debt funding from the market. "Equity markets have rebounded sharply since last year's bear-market trough, with the S&P 500 rising almost 70 percent," Barclays Wealth said in a note. "We believe there is more room for equity market gains, albeit probably at a slower pace than registered in the past 12 months." Asian shares outside of Japan put on 0.4 per cent to hit a seven-week high as Chinese data showed exports and imports in February were better than expected. The news boosted copper prices and the Australian dollar, which touched a seven-week high as China is the biggest buyer of Australia's commodity exports. Copper prices advanced 0.8 percent and gold was 0.6 percent higher. Oil prices advanced 0.5 percent to trade below $82 a barrel. Eurozone government bond prices drifted lower in what could be the second-heaviest week of supply so far this year. Sterling lost 0.4 per cent to trade below $1.50 at $1.4933 after data showed an unexpected fall in British manufacturing output in January. The British currency was already under pressure on concerns over its sovereign rating and political uncertainty. It has lost 7.5 per cent versus the dollar this year on concerns Britain may be stuck in political deadlock after an election expected in May. The euro ticked 0.1 per cent higher against the US currency at $1.3608, after trading as low as $1.3542 earlier in the day following ratings agency Fitch said on Tuesday it still had a negative outlook on Portugal's credit rating.
