Egypt's bourse benchmark the EGX30 edged up 5.1 per cent to 5,206.97 points on Sunday, the first rise in three days of resumed stock market trading. "Heavy-weighted companies pulled the index up," says Mohammed Assran, Vice Chairman of Pioneers Securities. Trading was suspended for a half-hour early in the day after the broader EGX100 index rose more than five per cent, triggering an emergency measure put in place by the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority in early March. The benchmark EGX30 was up 2.65 per cent before trading was temporarily suspended. It shed 3.7 per cent on Thursday and almost 9 per cent on Wednesday. The bourse recorded total equities turnover of LE1.13 billion during Sunday trade. Foreigner investors represented around 54 per cent of transactions, with net sales of more than LE190 million. In three days, net sales by foreigners have reached LE952 million, putting increased pressure on the value of the Egyptian pound. Egyptian traders have been cautious, representing 37.2 per cent of trade, and showing more activity on the buying side, with a net of LE291.5m. Individual traders seemed more willing to take part in transactions, with 30 per cent on Sunday comparing to 16 per cent in the last two sessions. The broader picture is even more promising. "The EGX70 is recovering faster than the EGX30 and there are hardly any foreigners who trade on these companies. It doesn't include any corruption-involved companies", says Asran. "Also brokerages held back from selling them after because of the limit set by emergency measures." Overall 158 of the 184 shares traded on the market experienced rises, with almost all sectors sharing the upturn, including construction, telecommunications, banks and real estate. The exceptions were companies currently mired in corruption investigations such as property developers Palm Hills, TMG and SODIC, which all finished down 10 per cent. Construction firm Ezz Porcelain also saw a 10 per cent drop. "I am sure the main losers will reverse their movement within three upcoming sessions… TMG gained LE388m from trading on 81 million shares," predicts Asran. The top climbers in Sunday's session were OCI, which jumped 8.01 per cent, and Orascom Telecom, which leapt 10 per cent, in spite of declines in the firms' GDR prices of 4.5 per cent and 5.6 per cent respectively. Mobile operator Mobinil rose 10 per cent, as did Sinai Cement and the cement company Torah . Shares in the Commercial International Bank (CIB) climbed 7.32 per cent. Despite the rise, state-run Egynews reported the Egyptian Financial Services Authority (EFSA) has delayed any decision to cancel exceptional measures currently implemented on the stock market. Measures introduced by the EFSA include the reduction of the trading day to three hours and the placing of 'circuit breakers' to temporarily freeze trading in the event of strong upward or downward movement of key indexes. The market witnessed a sharp dip on Wednesday as trading restarted after seven weeks, losing a total US$6.2 billion in market value, with the EGX30 falling 8.92 per cent to 5,141 points after a three-hour trading session. Egypt's benchmark stock index fell for the second consecutive day on Thursday, sliding almost four per cent but paring steeper losses earlier in the session as investors looked to unload holdings. Now there seems to have been a marked turnaround. "The stock market will be ok after tomorrow and the exceptional procedures will be over," Asran told Ahram Online.
