Separately, the chairman of the board of the National Bank of Egypt, the country's largest state-owned bank, said the workers who had been protesting were caught up in the fever of the uprising against Mubarak but were entitled to demand better pay and benefits.

"They believe that it's an opportunity if they had any complaints and demands, and that there's a higher probability of getting them answered," Chairman Tarek Amer told the Associated Press.

Amer, who denied media reports that he had resigned, said the workers were justified in bringing attention to contract inequities and in demanding permanent jobs, with benefits such as healthcare, instead of temporary contracts.

"We're generating more than LE3.7 billion ($638 million) in net income before tax, and LE2 billion ($340 million) in net income after tax," Amer said, adding that the bank could afford to pay the projected LE30 million to LE40 million ($5.1 million to $6.8 million) that it would cost to boost salaries and provide other benefits to workers.

The strikes fueled investor uncertainty, built since protests began on 25 January. President Mubarak resigned Friday.

The Egyptian stock exchange's reopening was already delayed from Sunday to Wednesday; the latest delay could stoke investor fears in a country whose rosy short-term economic forecasts of weeks earlier are dimming quickly.

The stock market's board decided to keep the exchange closed Wednesday and Thursday — the last two days of the working week — and "until work is back to normal in the banking sector," according to a statement released by the bourse. It did not specify when the exchange may reopen.