Non-Arab buying pushed Egyptian stocks up on Tuesday, traders said. Non-Arabs made net purchases worth LE57.7 million ($10 million), they added. Egyptian and Arab investors made net sell-offs worth LE53.3 million and LE4.4 million respectively, according to the Egyptian Exchange. The country's benchmark index EGX 30 gained 0.59 per cent, ending the day's trading at 6,030.38 points. The EGX 70, which measures 70 of the country's small and mid caps, rose by 1.59 per cent to 569.51 points. Volume exceeded LE850 million, according to the Egyptian Exchange. Orascom Construction Industries, the country's largest builder by market value, gained 1.14 per cent to LE232.53 per share. Orascom Telecom, the largest Arab mobile operator by subscribers, shed 0.2 per cent to LE4.9 per share. Developer Talaat Moustafa jumped by 3.09 per cent, to LE7.34 per share. Meanwhile, European stocks rose for the sixth straight session and hitting a near three-week high, as forecast-beating results from Alcoa fuelled hopes for strong company profits this earnings season, according to Reuters. "The steep retreat expected by chartists has not materialised, at least not yet," said IG Markets technical analyst Vincent Ganne in Paris. "Downtrend signals have abated, disrupted by the start of the earnings season. But there aren't uptrend signals either, and volumes are ridiculously low, so it's better not to read too much into this rebound." The FTSEurofirst 300 has jumped about 8 percent since hitting a low on July 1, when investors started to look for bargains as fears over the euro zone debt crisis and banks' balance sheets started to ease while the focus turned back to corporate results and outlooks. Kicking off the second-quarter earnings season, US aluminium major Alcoa Inc posted a stronger-than-expected second-quarter profit on Monday and raised its estimate for global aluminium consumption. Rivals Norsk Hydro surged 3.7 per cent, ArcelorMittal was up 2.3 per cent and Anglo American gained 1.8 per cent. "It was quite predictable that the market would bounce back on the results (this earnings season). We're switching from a macro focus to a micro focus, and this should drive the market in July, although it will stay range-bound," said Claudia Panseri, head of equity strategy at Societe Generale CIB. Investors are awaited results from bellwethers such as Intel (INTC.O), Google, JPMorgan, Bank of America and General Electric (GE.N), due later this week. Banking stocks featured among the top gainers after the Greek auction and as recent worries over the sector's stress tests moved to the back burner. Around Europe, UK's FTSE 100 index was up 1.7 per cent, Germany's DAX index up 1.6 per cent, and France's CAC 40 up 1.7 per cent.
