CAIRO - Driven by a bullish sentiment, non-Arabs made net purchases worth LE115.1 million ($19.8 million), they added. Locals and Arabs made net sell-offs worth LE109 million and LE5.9 million respectively. The North African country's benchmark index EGX 30 gained 0.85 per cent. The EGX 70, which measures 70 of the country's small and mid caps, was flat at 723.37 points. Volume hit LE750 million, according to the Egyptian Exchange. Orascom Construction Industries added 1.84 per cent to LE279 per share. Orascom Telecom, the largest Arab mobile operator by subscribers, was flat at LE4.29 per share. Real estate developer SODIC slipped 0.32 per cent to LE107.32 per share. Citadel Capital added by 1.55 per cent to a one-year high at LE9.2 per share. Meanwhile, shares in Japan and China eased as concerns that further Chinese monetary tightening will cool the engine of world economic growth overshadowed Japanese data that pointed to improving demand, according to Reuters. The dollar fell broadly, hitting an all-time low against the Swiss franc, which was lifted by corporate buying, and a six-and-a-half week low versus the yen, while the euro recovered after recent weakness. The Swiss franc was the biggest gainer among major currencies, with traders citing year-end buying by Swiss corporates. Moves were exaggerated in very thin post-Christmas trade, with UK markets closed for a public holiday, they said. The euro also jumped against the dollar after stop-loss orders were triggered at key chart points around $1.32. It rose to $1.3274, its highest in more than a week and extending its recovery from last week's three-week low of $1.3055. "There will be some year-end positioning, but markets are very thin which is why we are seeing quite strong movements," said Youna Park, Commerzbank currency strategist in Frankfurt. The euro was last up 0.8 percent at $1.3262. Its next target is $1.3278, a 50 percent retracement of its fall earlier this month from $1.3500 to $1.3055, and then around $1.3330-35, which includes a 61.8 percent retracement of the same decline as well as the pair's peak in August. "Essentially the euro is rising on short-covering. I think we'll need to watch the market a bit more to see how investors plan to allocate their money after Christmas and in the new year," said Estuko Yamashita, chief economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp in Tokyo. The euro also gained against sterling, rising 0.6 percent to a five-week high of 85.93 pence, with the British currency still hampered by concerns that planned harsh austerity measures will dampen an already fragile UK economic recovery. Many in the market expect to see more euro weakness in the new year, however, due to worries some eurozone countries such as Spain and Portugal may need rescue programmes, tracking a path trodden by Greece and Ireland. Year-end flows were broadly negative for the dollar, which lost close to 1 percent against a basket of currencies .DXY to 79.596, its lowest in 11 days, to take it below its 100-day moving average around 79.808.
