Egyptian stock indexes today rose, propelled forward by foreign purchasing. While the indexes were expected to fall after the recent credit downgrade by Standard & Poor's – Egypt fell to a BB rating – the exchange gained 3.02 billion EGP (U.S. $505.44 million). The main EGX30 index gained 1.1 percent to close at 4,264 points and the EGX20 also increased 1.1 percent. The EGX70 and EGX100 rose 2.7 and 1.2 percent, respectively. Egyptian investor transactions comprised 95.44 percent of trading today, achieving a net of 3.6 million EGP (U.S. $602,510) and foreign investors captured 3.74 percent of transactions, equaling 9.1 million EGP (U.S. $1.52 million). Arab investors took only 0.82 percent of transactions for a total of 5.5 million EGP (U.S. $920,502). Many blue-chip stocks today rode the uptick and made gains, including Qala, up 5.4 percent; Commercial International Bank, up 1.5 percent; Egypt for Telecom, up 1.1 percent; Orascom for Construction, up 1.3 percent; Hermes, up 1.6 percent; Palm Hills, up 3.1 percent; and Talaat Mostafa Group, up 2.7 percent.
