CAIRO: Main Egyptian stock indexes snapped an eight-session losing streak to end slightly higher on Sunday, with investors chasing bargain prices on companies including Orascom Telecom. Shares in the biggest Arab mobile phone operator by subscribers, down nearly 80 percent this year to Thursday s close, last traded 2.95 percent up at LE 22.30 ($4.02). Mohamed Radwan, a trader at Pharos Securities, said a rally in the US stock market on Friday on reports that President-elect Barack Obama had picked Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary helped push shares higher. Local investors see the high correlation between Egypt and the US and they anticipate a better week, he said. People are looking for stocks that were really damaged last week. Shares in MobiNil rose 2.28 percent to LE 119, while Ezz Dekheila Steel gained 1.75 percent to last trade at LE 735.50. Wafik Dawood of Naeem Brokerage said low trading volumes indicate that the market was braced for more volatility. Rule number one for a rebound is volume, and since there is no (high) volume than there is no buying power, he said. The benchmark CASE 30 index rose 0.73 percent to 3,906.25 points. The rival Hermes index added 0.92 percent to 369.96 points and the broader CIBC lost 2.79 percent to 268 points.
