Egypt high-caps pull main index up 0.85 per cent

Egyptian stocks saw another sesson of modest gains Tuesday, powered upwards by a smattering of positive news for major firms and the steady performance of global markets.

The benchmark EGX30 closed the day up 0.85 per cent at 4,349 points, its latest in a weeklong series of gains that reflected growing investor interest in a select few of Egypt's commercial giants.

"World stocks are seeing steady trade and some are gaining in value -- this affects Egyptian perfomance," said Ashraf Abdel Aziz, head of institutions sales at Arabeya Online Securities. "On a local level, major blue-chip stocks pushed the market up which is obvious when you look at turnover for these shares."

From the days 178 listed stocks, 52 gained in value and 110 declined, with sectors near-evenly splashed with green and red.

Total turnover was LE251.8 million, a significant drop on Monday's LE309m.

The Commercial International Bank yet again saw the highest activity -- some LE35.36 million -- finishing up 2.44 per cent on the interest of mainly foreign buyers who made up 29 per cent of trade and were the day's sole net-buyers.

Egypt's largest listed firm Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) also helped drive the main index, closing 2.15 per cent up, following the firm's announcement of participation in a $3 billion fertiliser plant venture in Brazil.