For the second day in a row, Egyptian stocks rose on Thursday as foreign investors were driven by a bullish sentiment, traders said. Orascom Construction Industries, Egypt's largest builder by market value, added 1.16 per cent, closing at LE235.79 ($41.6) per share. Orascom Telecom, the largest Arab mobile operator by subscribers, gained 0.94 per cent to LE5.36 per share. Arab and non-Arab investors made net purchases worth LE7.5 million and LE27.5 million respectively, traders added. Egyptians made net sell-offs worth LE34.9 million. The North African country's benchmark index EGX 30 gained 1.1 per cent, ending the week's trading at 6,418.39 points. The EGX 70 index, which measures 70 of the country's small and mid caps, added 1.39 per cent to 551.81 points. Volume hit LE1.6 billion, according to the Egyptian Exchange. In a related event, Arafa Holding, Egypt's biggest garment exporter, posted a more than five-fold rise in net profit for the Feb-April period, the bourse said in a statement carried by Reuters. The firm's net profit was $13.3 million in the Feb-April period, up from $2.6 million in the same period a year ago, the statement said. The period is the first quarter of Arafa's financial year, which ends on January 31. Globally, the euro hit a three-week high versus the dollar as worries about Spain's public finances were eased by a well covered bond auction, triggering stop-losses on stale short positions in the single currency. The Swiss franc rose as the Swiss National Bank relaxed its interventionist stance and said deflationary risks in the Swiss economy had all but disappeared. "The auction went reasonably well but with rising yields it's not that much of a surprise. There are still worrying signs for Spain, particularly stresses in the Spanish bank funding market," said Lee Hardman, a currency strategist at BTM-UFJ. The euro was trading up around 0.6 per cent versus the dollar at $1.2390 at 09:50 GMT. It had fallen to a low of $1.2243 as worries over Spain's public finances and banking sector hit sentiment in early trade. "We think the euro rally is being driven by position adjustment rather than fundamentals in particular," added Hardman. The Swiss franc rose versus the euro and the dollar after the SNB omitted specific reference to the currency in the statement accompanying its decision to leave interest rates on hold.
