CAIRO - Egypt's main index rose slightly by 0.11 per cent on Thursday, while the country's broader EGX 70 index was flat, traders said. The North African country's benchmark index EGX 30 added 7.15 points, ending the week's trading at 6,689.76 points. The EGX 70, which measures 70 of the country's small and mid caps, was at 734.52 points. Volume hit LE823.8 million ($142.8 million), according to the Egyptian Exchange. Orascom Telecom, the largest Arab mobile operator by subscribers, added 0.72 per cent to LE4.2 per share. Commercial International Bank (CIB) inched up by 0.22 per cent to LE41.74 per share. Talaat Moustafa, the country's biggest developer, gained 0.12 per cent to LE8.07 per share. Meanwhile, world stocks rose for a second straight day and the euro sat on the previous day's gains, according to Reuters. The euro posted its biggest one-day rise in more than a month on Wednesday while yield spreads of peripheral issues over German bunds tightened. The Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) world equity index rose 0.6 per cent to a one-week high, having hit its weakest level in nearly two months earlier this week. The FTSEurofirst 300 index rose a quarter percent while emerging stocks gained one percent. The euro was steady at $1.3135 after jumping to $1.3183 on Wednesday from an 11-week low on Tuesday. The dollar was steady against a basket of major currencies. "The most important point is the credibility of these (the euro zone peripheral) countries and for them to become fiscally sustainable in the relevant time horizon, and there's a parallel banking system issue, as we've seen in Ireland," said Bernard McAlinden, investment strategist at NCB Stockbrokers in Dublin. "The debt crisis is the only thing that is stopping the market breaking higher. The economic data from the States is increasingly reassuring," McAlinden added.
