CAIRO: The main Egyptian stock indexes closed today's session with a 3.2 billion EGP (U.S. $537 million) gain, mostly due to Arab investors. Egyptian and foreign investor purchasing fell sharply in the second part of today's session, affecting the profits of the main index. But small shares and purchases continued to push the value of the index until the closing bell. The main EGX index rose 0.78 percent to end the day at 4,628, the EGX 70 rose 1.5 percent and the EGX 100 gained 1.3 percent with total transactions equaling 242.5 million EGP (U.S. $41 million). Foreign investors were responsible for 7.48 percent of transactions totaling 6.7 million EGP (U.S. $1.12 million), Egyptian investors took 85.57 percent of transactions equaling 4.06 million EGP (U.S. $681,377) and Arab investing comprised 6.95 percent of transactions, totaling 10.8 million EGP (U.S. $1.81 million). Organizational and institutional trading accounted for 20.45 percent of all transactions, equaling 17.9 million EGP (U.S. $3 million) while individuals too 79.54 percent of transaction equaling 17.9 million EGP. Blue chip stocks saw moderate increases today. Orascom Construction gained 1.3 percent; Pioneers rose 5.4 percent; International Trade Bank gained 0.72 percent; Orascom Telecom went up 0.62 percent; and Mobinil gained 1.2 percent.
