Cairo – Mubasher: The Egyptian Exchange forecasted to extend positive performance through this week's trades as Egypt approaches the date of opening its "new Suez canal", analysts told Mubasher.

The new canal will be inaugurated on 6 August-a year after construction started  bringing the 150-year-old waterway into the 21st century.   

The benchmark index EGX30 is likely to test the levels of 8,260 and 8,330 points respectively, added the analysts.

"The benchmark resumed its upside trend last Thursday as it break above the major barrier of 8,140 points to end at the level of 8,191 points amid strong traded volumes and it is expected to face main resistance at the level of 8,260 points,"  said Mona Hassan, chief technical analyst at MubasherTrade.

On Thursday, EGX30 rose 1.06% or 85.84 points to close above the 8140 barrier at 8191.53 points, while EGX70, which measures small and mid-cap stocks, also rose 1.07% to 459.12 points and the broader index EGX100 ended 1.64% higher at 944.14 points