Egypt's market rose for a third day in a row on Thursday as worries over the health of President Hosni Mubarak eased, traders said. The North African country's benchmark index EGX 30 gained 0.76 per cent, ending the week's trading at 6,610.42 points. The EGX 70, which measures 70 of the country's small and mid caps, added 1.62 per cent to 671.79 points. Volume hit LE1 billion ($183 million), according to the Egyptian Exchnage's website. Orascom Construction Industries, Egypt's largest builder by market value, jumped by 2.13 per cent, closing at LE248.2 per share. Meanwhile, world stocks slipped back from recent closing highs and the euro fell half a percent against the dollar on worries about Greece not receiving The euro was trading at $1.3661, recovering slightly from a session low of $1.3648. "It forced many investors to dump euro long positions after the recent relative calm on the Greek debt woes helped some to buy the euro back," said a senior trader for a Japanese securities firm. MSCI's all-country world stock index dipped a quarter of a per cent as did its emerging market-only counterpart. European stocks rose from their lows, although wariness ahead of some key US data remained prevalent, alongside confusion over whether the European Union is willing to support Greece. Concerns over Greece's debt came to the fore again on mixed signals as to whether the country would ask the International Monetary Fund for financial aid, in light of mounting doubts that it will receive any help from the European Union. "The market is pricing in that there is no prospect of higher interest rates any time soon in the west, but that's because of a danger of a relapse in the economy, and there are doubts creeping in about the ... support for the Greece rescue plan," said Bernard McAlinden, investment strategist at NCB Stockbrokers in Dublin. The FTSE nudged up a little after UK public finance data were better than expected and the pace of deterioration appeared to be slowing. Sterling rose on the news and gilts were up modestly. The UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer will reveal his 2010 Budget next week, and markets will be keen to see how he intends to continue to deal with the country's budget deficit. Meanwhile, eurozone exports fell further than expected in January, but there was little market reaction. Elsewhere, banks were under pressure after Citigroup downgraded the global financial sector to neutral from overweight, saying it is likely to be a "problem child" as the surge in global equities comes to an end. Royal Bank of Scotland dropped 2.3 per cent, while Credit Agricole fell 0.9 per cent. Earlier in Asia, stocks closed lower, unable to hold on to earlier gains. Japan's Nikkei 225 ended down 0.9 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.2 per cent and the Shanghai Composite dropped 0.2 per cent. In the European foreign exchanges, the euro was hit by confusion about Greece's next move to remedy its debt problems.
