Cairo - Mubasher: The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) achieved a positive performance in the first week of March, supported by the buying of Arab and foreign investors.

Over the last week, the EGX's hit a new record as it neared the level of 16,500 points, with market capitalisation reached its highest level ever.

The benchmark index EGX30 gained 6.6% this week, recording its highest weekly gains since December 2016, adding more than 1,000 points to close at 16,472.28 points.

Market analyst Michael Mamdouh told Mubasher that although the main index has reached a fresh high record, some small investors are angry about the resistance of most stocks to the upward trend, which was led by blue chips like the Commercial International Bank (CIB) and Eastern Company.

The market cap closed the week at the level of EGP 957.9 billion, gaining EGP 65.6 billion.

Gains were at the time in which the Egyptian economy is showing more signs of recovery, including the decline of inflationary pressures, as well as the visit of the Saudi Crown Prince to Cairo, as Egypt is set to cooperate with the oil-rich kingdom in a new megaproject, the analyst noted.

The small and medium enterprises index EGX70 kept up with the main index as it gained around 900 points.

EGX70 rose by 3.86% to 894.81 points, while the broader EGX100 surged by 6.52% to 2,243 points.

The equal-weighted index EGX50 went up 2.87% by the end of the week, as it settled near 2,775 points.