CAIRO - For the fourth day in a row, Arab buying pushed Egyptian shares up on Monday, traders said. Arabs, who made net purchases worth LE44.5 million ($7.5 million), led the country's benchmark index 0.76 per cent up, to 5,590.03 points, they added. But the broader indexes EGX 70 and EGX 100 were in the red, slipping by 0.61 and 0.14 per cent to 647.88 and 1,005.5 points respectively. Locals and non-Arab made net sell-offs worth LE33 million and LE11.4 million respectively. Volume totalled 623.9 million, according to Bourse data. Egypt's heavyweight Commercial International Bank (CIB) added 0.16 per cent to LE31.88 per share. EFG-Hermes, the country's biggest investment bank by market value, gained 0.22 per cent to LE22.75 per share. Ezz Steel fell by 3.2 per cent to LE10.59 per share. Talaat Moustafa, the country's biggest listed builder, added 0.63 per cent to LE4.79 per share. Orascom Construction Industries rose by 1.62 per cent to LE272.44 per share. Orascom Telecom, the largest Arab mobile operator by subscribers, rose by 1.83 per cent LE4.45 per share. Mobinil was nearly flat at LE146.99 per share. Globally, the euro slipped and world stocks were stuck with fears of a Greek debt default undimmed and US and UK market holidays keeping many investors on the sidelines, according to Reuters. The shared currency was down 0.4 per cent and European shares were flat in anemic trade, although German utilities sagged after Berlin's decision to shut all nuclear reactors by 2022 in the wake of Japan's Fukushima disaster. Greece's debt crisis continued to deter investors from searching out higher risk assets. World stocks as measured by the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) All-Country World Index were up 0.1 per cent. Japan's Nikkei ended down 0.2 per cent, while the MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan found a footing after falling for five consecutive weeks.
