Cairo – Mubasher: The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) initiated Thursday's trading session on a stronger note after the benchmark index EGX30 moved near the mark of 8,000 points.

By 10:45am Cairo time, the main index rose by 0.13%, or 10 points, to 7,924 points.

The main index is expected to cross 8,000 points today, said head of technical analysis at Acumen for Securities, describing yesterday's rebound as "the comeback of big gains".

By holding above Thursday's targeted mark, the index is likely to adopt an upward trend on the short-to-mid-term run, targeting the marks of 8,300 points and then 8,600 points, Hassan added.

The small and mid-cap EGX70 was 0.15% up to 364.4 points. The broader index increased by 0.14% to 783.6 points, while the equal-weighted index EGX50 inched up 0.1% to 1,390.7 points.

EGX30 stocks gave a varied performance at early trade. The largest EGX30 constituent CIB moved up by 2% after announcing a 28% growth in its second quarter earnings.

Similarly, EFG-Hermes, Beltone, GT, TMG, and Ezz Steel saw a rise ranging from 0.8% to 7% by 10:45am Cairo time.

On the flipside, SODIC, Oriental Weaver, and TE registered a slide swinging from 0.3% to 1.5%.

Foreign and Arab investors were net buyers by EGP 28.5 million and EGP 3.1 million correspondingly, while Egyptians were net sellers by EGP 31.6 million.

Market turnover reached EGP 169 million after 46 million shares were traded.

Out of 116 traded stocks, 45 rose, 29 fell, 42 remained flat.

In terms of the most active stocks by value, OC were the top gainers with 556,000 shares changing hands at EGP 31 million.

Meanwhile, Palm Hills was the most active stock in terms of volume after trading 8 million shares at more than EGP 21 million.

Yesterday, the benchmark index gained 4.97% or 374.75 points, while trading value exceeded EGP 1 billion supported by institutional buying.