EGX30 rises 3.2% after eight-day slide: The Egyptian Exchange rebounded yesterday, bringing a dose of much-needed positivity to a week that had seen shares experience their sharpest falls since 2015. The benchmark EGX30 closed up 3.2%, with 29 of the index’s constituents rising. “What is happening is just a breath-taking break after three sessions of severe downturn and about eight sessions of consecutive declines,” Ibrahim Al Nimr, head of technical analysis at Cairo’s Naeem Brokerage, told Reuters.

Gains for 29 out of the 30 stocks: CIB, which counts for over a third of the EGX30’s weighting, gained 3.4%. Palm Hills was up 6.1% and Elsewedy Electric 4.3%. Investors also snapped up shares that were among the hardest-hit earlier in the week, with Eastern Company and Ezz Steel each up 4.7%, Egyptian Iron & Steel gaining 5.4%, and Juhayna rising 3.5%. Education outfit CIRA was the only company on the index to finish in the red, down 3.9% at close.

Foreigners bought the dip: They may have been leading the sell-off on Tuesday, but yesterday foreign investors offered the EGX some respite from a losing streak that had seen the index plunge 11% in the previous three sessions on the back of weekend protests. Trading data showed foreign investors as net buyers to the tune of EGP 131.6 mn and Arabs buying a net EGP 48.2 mn worth of shares.