Big caps pushed Egypt's main index 219 points up on Monday, traders said. The North African country's main index EGX 30 jumped by 3.24per cent, ending the day's trading at 6,976.96 points. The EGX 70 index, which measures 70 of the country's small and mid caps, added 2.4 per cent to 680.22 points. Volume hit LE1.2 billion ($215 million), according to the Egyptian Exchange. Globally, the euro rallied from last week's 14-month low against the dollar yesterday after policymakers agreed on a $1 trillion emergency package to stabilise the euro and euro zone central banks began buying local government debt. The aid package, hammered out by European Union finance ministers, central bankers and the International Monetary Fund, was the biggest since Group of 20 leaders rolled out support measures after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, Reuters reported. The news pushed US oil prices more than $3 per barrel to above $78. Benchmark US light crude oil futures for June delivery were $2.72 higher at $77.83 a barrel by 11:02 GMT after hitting an intra-day high of $78.51, up $3.40. The plan calmed investor nerves after contagion fears triggered a global rout in equities and other risky assets last week, leading to a broad rally in the euro and equities. Central banks in Finland, Germany and France confirmed euro zone central banks have started buying government bonds. Uncertainty persisted however, over whether the package would give the euro lasting support since Greece and other peripheral euro zone countries must tackle fiscal deficits when their growth outlook is deteriorating. "The problems in the euro zone are still there, the fiscal backdrop hasn't changed," said Tom Levinson, currency strategist at ING. "We expect euro/dollar selling to re-emerge and have a one-month target of $1.25," he said. At 11:02 GMT, the euro was trading with gains of around 1.8 per cent at $1.2990 having earlier risen as high as $1.3093 as the emergency aid package boosted sentiment. "The package announced yesterday was supportive of euro sentiment. There is some uncertainty lingering about the mechanisms of the stabilization funds, however. In particular, it is still unclear where the money for the funds is going to come from," said Valentin Marinov, a currency strategist at Societe Generale. "In the case of Greece, very protracted economic recovery could lead to more funding needs." he said. The euro had fallen to $1.2510 on trading platform EBS last week, coinciding with currency speculators boosting bets in favor of the dollar to a level strategists said was the highest since the euro's launch in 1999. The single currency is still down nearly 9 percent since January, making it the worst performing major currency. The package pledged 500 billion euros of loans and loan guarantees to any euro zone countries needing funds, plus about 250 billion euros from the IMF. It was a package on the scale of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Programme (TARP) launched by the United States to fend off the financial crisis of 2007-2009. There were also measures by central banks to address funding strains and a European Central Bank plan to buy the region's government bonds.
