Cairo - Mubasher: The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) reached new record highs thid week, which included only four trading sessions, as Wednesday was a national holiday commemorating Sinai Liberation Day.

The benchmark index EGX30 rose 3.27% to 18,363.29 points, gaining 582.27 points, with trading volumes reaching 1.29 billion shares, and a total turnover of EGP 4.9 billion.

The market capital surpassed the trillion pound mark, increasing by EGP 24.6 billion, totalling EGP 1.006 trillion, compared to EGP 981.4 billion by the end of last week.

It is worth noting that Thursday’s session saw the initial public offering of CI Capital, with a total value of EGP 1.7 billion, by offering 225.6 million shares, representing 54.84% of the company’s capital.

The heavyweight Commercial International Bank (CIB) made its bigged weekly gains since March, rising by 6.3% to EGP 94.99.

On the other hand, the small and medium-sized enterprise index EGX70 slipped 0.15% to 865.82 points, while the broader index EGX100 increased by 0.81% to 2,291 points.

The equal-weighted EGX50 went up 2.3% to 3,084 points.

Elsewedy Electric has announced the approval of its stock split, making its nominal value EGP 1 instead of EGP 10.

Market analyst Sameh Gharib said that blue chip stocks supported the performance of the main index, especially Elsewedy and CIB.

Gharib also told Mubasher that he expects EGX30 to target the 18,500-point level next week, with main support lying near 18,000 points.