The EGX30 closed up once again yesterday on massive volumes, its twelfth straight session in the money. The EGX30 was up 2.1% with foreign investors once again buyers as c. EGP 2 bn in shares changed hands — that’s about 350% above the trailing 90-day average. Egyptian Resorts Company, Domty and Ezz Steel led the day’s top gainers. Reuters suggests in passing we may have seen signs of some tentative profit-taking yesterday.

With the IMF pact now signed, we wonder: When does the Ismail government start to discuss use of proceeds, whether that’s simply leaving the funds parked at CBE as a liquidity buffer in the event of some exogenous shock to the economy, or putting it to work backing a plank or more of the reform program.

Germany’s plan to have Egypt take in migrants is still in the cards, as we suggested early last week (additional background here). It now seems that we’re asking the European Union for trade concessions as well as German and European Union support “negotiating more favourable terms on a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF),” the Australian reports, saying Cairo has been in talks with “Christoph Heusgen, [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel’s foreign policy adviser, and Jan Hecker, her refugee policy co-ordinator.” It strikes us that Egypt’s ask could be a bit more ambitious than that, but in any event: Watch this space, even if for news that Austria is the only other EU country to (so far) back the proposed arrangement publicly.

Oh, and the online press in Ghana is still chattering over the fact that Hadary scaled the goal (again) to cheer Egypt’s 2-0 victory last night, the latest in the nation’s quest for a 2018 World Cup berth. (Watch, run time: 0:51). Egypt is now at the top of Africa’s Group E in qualifying matches for the 2018 Russia World Cup. Just don’t let that make you think we’re assured a berth, King Fut warns. We would also like to treat you to some of the goals from last night. Egypt’s first — from that champion Mohamed Salah ± was a penalty, followed by an even more exquisite one from Abdallah Al-Said (runtime: 1:16).

Across the pond: Donald Trump has appointed RNC chief Reince Priebus as chief of staff and “insurgent firebrand” Steve Bannon as his chief strategist, Politico reports. The man to whom the Dems may now turn to rebuild? The first Muslim elected to Congress, Keith Ellison, now being touted as a great chairman of the DNC. Trump, meanwhile, is making headlines for his interview last night with CBS’ 60 Minutes Leslie Stahl, in which (among other things) he suggests he didn’t mean everything literally, but rather as opening gambits in a process of negotiation. (Watch, run time 39:42. Lot of ads, but no geo-blocker as of dispatch time.)

Finally: CIB has again increased raised its caps on use of credit cards abroad, according to an update to its term sheet from yesterday. You can check out the full list here (pdf). Caps are up across the board, with Platinum cardholders now being able to make purchases of the USD equivalent of EGP 100,000, up from EGP 64,000 last week. Al Borsa has a roundup on new limits in this slideshow.