Egypt blue-chip shares rose 0.12 percent to 6837.61 points yesterday, beating analyst expectations to close the market, and week, on a high note.

"A little bit of optimism came with expectations for the new beginning next week helping trading rise slightly at the end of the day," said Kamal Mahgoub, Chairman of the Economic Community Consulting of Securitie (ECCS).  "Small individual investors also had an appetite to buy." The value of trading stood at LE 648.74 million, with 98.31 million shares traded through 36.03 thousand transactions.
 
Overall purchases stood marginally higher than sales. Foreign net purchases rose LE 15.32 million pounds - LE154.97 million pounds of purchases compared to LE 139.65 million pounds of sales. Registered Egyptian purchases stood higher, with a net of LE 17.46 million, achieved through purchases of 1.26 billion pounds compared to sales of LE1.24 billion. Losses came from Gulf  Arab investors, who shed LE 62.51 million pounds of stock compared to purchases worth LE 29.72 million.

Egyptian investors represented 86.65% of total trading, with foreigners and Arabs making up 10.17% and 3.18% of market action respectively. Net sellers comprised less than two-thirds of market trading.