For the fourth day in a row, Arab buying and a rise in Orascom Telecom shares pushed Egyptian indexes up on Monday, traders said. Orascom Telecom (OT), the largest Arab mobile operator by subscribers, rose by one per cent to LE5.04 ($0.88) per share, they added. Orascom Construction Industries slid by 0.61 per cent to LE229.52 per share. EFG-Hermes, Egypt's largest investment bank by market value, shed 0.64 per cent, closing at LE27.77 per share. The North African country's main index EGX 30 was slightly up by 0.07 per cent, ending the day's trading at 6,115.93 points. The EGX 70, which measures 70 of the country's small and mid caps, added 0.5 per cent to 588.1 points. Volume hit LE1.3 billion, accordig to the Egyptian Exchange. Meanwhile, robust US company earnings and surprisingly vigorous eurozone economic data generally trumped investor skepticism about European bank stress tests on Monday to support global stocks including banks, according to Reuters. There was weakness on European bourses, but banking stocks, the key test, were up a third of a per cent on the first trading day after the release of stress tests, which showed most financial institutions to be in relatively good shape. There was still concern that the tests were not tough -- by not considering sovereign debt default, for example -- but investors appeared content with the results. The cost of insuring bank debt against default was cheaper, with the Markit iTraxx Senior Financials composite narrowing 2.5 basis points. Euribor interbank lending rates were barely changed. "We interpret the bank stress test as positive. Disclosure is help not hindrance, therefore, we are overweight on banks. We do not expect a double-dip," said Gary Baker, head of European strategy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Underlying investor sentiment has been lifted by a series of reports in the past week showing the broader European economy to be stronger than thought. Purchasing managers' indexes indicated third-quarter euro zone growth of around 0.6-0.7 percent, double the 0.3 per cent forecast in the most recent Reuters poll. German business sentiment also posted a record jump in July to its highest level in three years. Non-eurozone member Britain added to the mix with an economy growing twice as fast as expected in the second quarter. The euro erased most of its early gains against the dollar as caution set in and early risk-taking sentiment faded a bit. "Any downside lurch has been prevented by the generally reassuring conclusions of the tests ... no surprises as to the vulnerabilities, and no real headache in terms of the required capitalization to bolster their position," said Daragh Maher, deputy head of FX strategy at Credit Agricole CIB. "At the same time, any relief rally for the euro has been curtailed by inevitable criticism about some of the deficiencies of the stress test assumptions. The euro was flat compared with late US trade on Friday at $1.2900, falling from a session high of $1.2958.
